Zootopia: Lost in Time
by Old Goat
Summary: A stranger suddenly appears and claims that he is Nick and Judy's son. His very existence also seems to be ripping apart the space-time continuum. This is the last story of the A Fox Out of Time Trilogy, the sequel to Zootopia: A Paradox in Time and Zootopia: Broken Time.
1. Time Travelers

**Welcome to the final story in the A ****Fox Out of Time Trilogy****. The two previous stories are:**

**Zootopia: A Paradox in Time** \- **A strange pocket watch is found with the bones of a murdered victim. Nick and Judy find themselves dragged into the past and they think that the only way they can save themselves from being trapped there forever is to stop the murder. For Judy the Roaring Twenties is exciting, but Nick finds that it is a dangerous time to be a fox **

**Zootopia: Broken Time **-** Nick & Judy find themselves once again lost in time! Unfortunately, it is during that brutal era of history we call the Dark Ages. This is the Age of Arthur, but he does not rule that bright & shining kingdom of legend. Petty kings squabble with each other, even as their kingdoms are threatened by savage raiders and a fox in love with a rabbit is taboo. **

_I do not own the rights to either Zootopia and The Time Tunnel or any of its characters. This story was written solely for the reader's enjoyment and without any profitable purposes. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical figures and those characters created by Disney or 20th Century Fox, are products of the author's warped imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical figure names appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental._

* * *

**Chapter 1: Time Travelers**

* * *

"**Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."**  
― Albert Einstein

**Our story picks up at the end of ****_Zootopia: Broken Time_**** after Ricky, the son of Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps, had tossed away the strange time controlling pocket watch from a 1920's crime scene so it would not be found by his parents in the future. He did it in an effort to free his mother from being suspended for all of eternity outside of time itself and by doing so, he eliminated himself from ever being conceived. Instead of just fading from existence, he was unknowing trapped by a benevolent god to exist within a sweet romantic time loop which replayed the day after his wedding to a vixen named Nockotia. This should have continued forever, but despite the best efforts of that true god, it seems that fate had other ideas!**

* * *

**Sometime Beyond Time **

His protective boots crushed the blooming wildflowers underneath his feet and there was the hissing sound of his respirator as he breathed in and out. His white helmet's rebreathing filtration system always reminded him of the sound which Darth Vader made in the old Star Wars movies. Looking over, he saw the other researcher in a matching orange spacesuit looking environmental suit.

"Doug, do you have any idea about where we are?" Doctor Tony Newman called over his helmet's radio to his other human comrade as they stumbled further into the sunlit meadow. "The techs set the time tunnel to only go forward five minutes into the future and this definitely isn't the lab!"

"Seems like we are somewhere along the Aegean Sea coast, maybe Albania?" the other time traveler replied. "Sensors are picking up oxygen levels which are slightly higher than they should be and less pollution."

"I can't raise the base, can you?"

"Negative, you're the only signal I can pick up. Look there is a tent ahead!"

"Leave your helmet on until we figure out what is happening. Come on let's take a look inside, maybe there's someone in there who can tell us where we are?"

Carefully they threw back the tent flaps and peered inside, only to stare in surprise at the vixen who had quickly pulled a white cotton bedsheet to cover her nakedness. An equally naked looking male fox with strange long ears sat up and stared back at them. "What in God's name?" Doctor Newman called out in shock.

Then the male fox grabbed his head and yipped in pain as his eyes began to turn white.

* * *

** Zootopia: 2016**

"So, are all rabbits bad drivers or is it just you?" Nick asked as he gave a mischievous grin toward Judy. He held a cherry pawpsicle in his paw and was about to give it another lick, when suddenly he lunged forward as the patrol car in which he was riding in came to a screeching stop.

"Oops." Judy called out in a deadpan manner as she glanced over at the fox with the sticky pawpsicle stuck to his face. "Sorry!"

"Sly bunny," he chuckled as he pulled the icy treat out of his fur.

"Dumb fox!" she replied as she gave her partner a very fox like smirk, before she looked back at the road.

"You know you love me?" Nick asked as he leaned towards her with a smile that quickly turned to a hopeful look when she hesitated answering.

"Do I know that?" Judy seemed to muse before she glanced his way and smiled. "Yes, Yes I do."

Nick grinned at her before he looked back at the intersection just as the light turned green and Judy stepped on the gas, only to slam on the brakes again as a cherry red and white striped sports car roared down the road just in front of them. The fox stared in surprise as he watched the car go by and then with a grin towards Judy, he flipped on his mirrored sunglasses before he reached to turn on the siren. Judy stepped on the gas and then there was a sudden THUMP!

"We hit someone!" the rabbit screamed out in a panicked voice. "Where did he come from?"

Nick grabbed the first aid kit as he jumped out of the patrol car and quickly knelt next to the strange reddish orange furred, very naked, creature lying in the street. He could hear Judy frantically calling for an ambulance. "Stay still," he ordered the strange fox like looking mammal with long, almost rabbit ears. "We have an ambulance on the way, just stay still."

The creature opened his eyes and blinked, they were unnervingly the same amethyst color as Judy's. "D...d…dad?" he asked as he weakly gripped the fox's arm. There was a bluish tinge to the creature's lips and he began to pant, before he fainted.

"He's in shock!" Nick yelled. "Where's that ambulance?" The fox leaned over and listened to younger creature's breathing, it was growing erratic. The sounds of a siren's wailing filled his ears and he looked up to see a large white vehicle slam to a stop. The ambulance's doors flew open and a whitetailed deer buck in a medium blue uniform shirt and dark blue pants, along with a petite female ocelot similarly dressed, leapt out and began to pull gear from inside.

"Out of the way fox!" the buck yelled as he rushed forward and knelt next to the creature. "What the hell is this...this thing...a fox?"

"A mutant fox maybe?" the ocelot replied as she snapped a longer pointy plastic mask onto a white hose and turned on the air tank's regulator before she placed it over the unconscious creature's muzzle. "His eyes are dilated and breathing is shallow, we need to get an IV into him and stabilize him before we try to move him!"

The buck nodded as he spoke into his radio, reporting the victim's condition to dispatch. Reaching into his gear, he pulled out a cervical collar and gently slipped it around the fox like thing's neck even as his partner inserted an IV into the creature's arm. "Okay, the neck brace is in place and now let's gently get him onto the stretcher."

"Wilde!" a voice boomed from behind Nick and he turned to see the imposing figure of Chief Bogo stepping out of an unmarked police car. "You and Hopps need to get back and let the EMTs take over."

Nick's ears flattened to the top of his head and his tail was wrapped protectively around his feet as he walked away from the medical team and towards where Judy was standing next to the large water buffalo in his dark blue police uniform, the sun sparkled on the four gold looking brass stars on each of the bull's shirts collars. Next to the Chief Bogo, his partner looked so small and devastated with her ears drooping down her back and her paws clutched tightly together.

"I swear he came out of nowhere," Nick began to say, but Bogo put up his massive hoof to stop him from continuing.

"Save your statement for the investigators, they are on their way over now," the bull snapped.

BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP

The rhythmic sound of the monitor was soothing to Ricky's ears, as he began to awaken. With a groan, he tried to shift himself upon the mattress and blinked a few times when he opened his eyes. Above him the recessed lights shone brightly, causing him to close his eyes again.

"His pulse has grown steadier…" a voice spoke from within the room.

"He's starting to wake up…" another voice said.

"We have him secured because we don't know what he is and if he is even civilized or feral," the first voice was explaining to someone else. "He was without any clothing and seems to be mostly vulpine in his anatomy, but with the ears and feet of a Lagomorpha."

"That is impossible!" another voice snapped. "That is biologically impossible unless someone has genetically engineered him."

"But he has a belly scar which means he was naturally born and not a test tube creation."

The hybrid closed his eyes again and slipped off into sleep, with dreams of green eyes surrounded by reddish orange fur peering at him and he knew that she was his lost mate...his true love.

* * *

**Sometime Beyond Time **

Whatever the hell Tony Newman had seen inside of the tent had just disappeared, along with everything else, in less than the blink of an eye. All the time traveler could see around him was pitch darkness as if he was in a void. "Where are you Doug," he tried to call out to his companion over the radio, but he didn't seem to be able to speak. Then he realized that the rhythmic sound of the helmet's respirator was silent and he panicked, trying to gasp for air but he couldn't. It then briefly occurred to him that he wasn't even breathing either, which was impossible because his mind was still working.

The explorer fought to try to get his body to move, to even blink his eyes, but it seemed that he had no control over any part of his body despite his efforts. Claustrophobia began to set in because he was blind to what his unresponsive eyes were seeing, which was only part of the the helmet's interior. "God no please!" the atheist's thoughts called out in desperation and as if in answer to his prayer, everything went white.

The respirator suddenly made its normal sucking and exhaling rhythmic sound as he came awake and blinked at the bright sunshine which was illuminating the greenish water before him. Tony realized he was now lying flat on a muddy bank along a slow flowing river. He groaned when something hard hit his side, it felt as if someone had kicked him.

"I don't know Rob, but that sure doesn't feel like armor to me?" Someone spoke from behind him. "Do you think he is dead?" The voice spoke English with a strange almost guttural growling animal like accent.

"Fie, let's turn him over, mayhaps he tis still alive!" another more cheery voice answered the question.

"I'm alive," Tony groaned as he rolled over and onto his back. His eyes widen in surprise when he saw that a red fox, wearing what appeared to be a green tunic, was staring at him. There was a green cap, or what he knew was once called an archer's hat, perched between the fox's reddish orange ears. Looming over the smaller fox was a huge brown bear in a similar outfit. "What the hell is going on?"

The fox quickly leaped back and yanked what appeared to be a bow off of his shoulder, even as he just as swiftly pulled an arrow from the quiver near his hip and notched it into the bowstring.

"What art thee?" the fox yelped in surprise. "Art thou a devil?"

"Shoot him Rob before he can cast the evil eye upon us!" the bear called out as he held a large wooden staff as if he was ready to strike with it.

"Wait, I'm a traveler!" Tony cried out as he held his gloved hands between himself and the now drawn arrow which was pointed his way.

"Take thy helmet off traveler," the fox growled as he stepped even further back. "So we might gaze upon thy visage."

Tony hesitated before he reached up and unhooked his protective helmet, the sensors were reading that the air quality outside was safe. With a hiss, the helmet came off and he slowly inhaled the sweet fresh air, before he caught a whiff of the fox's musky pungent smell.

"By the gods Rob, he almost hairless!" the bear gasped out as he leaned forward. "His only fur is between his ears and where's his muzzle?"

"What kind of beast art thou?" the fox asked, he still had his arrow aimed at the creature which was before him.

"I'm a human," Tony answered his question. "Haven't you seen a human before?"

"Nay, thou likes hath not been seen hereabouts before," the fox answered. "Where art thou from?"

Tony sat up and looked at the two animals, the fox stood at close to four feet tall and the bear towered over him by at least another two or three feet more. "Green clothes with that hat, a bow and arrow," he muttered almost to himself. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were Robin Hood."

"Aye that I am!" the fox airily proclaimed as he lowered his bow and swept his hat from off his head, even as he gave an overly exaggerated bow. "Robin of Locksley in the very fur, I am!"

"Let me guess, the bear is your sidekick Little John?" Tony scoffed.

"Hey, I'm not Rob's sidekick!" the bear protested as he frowned down at the human. "So are you going to answer our question or do I need to rap you on the noggin a few times to get you to tell us where you are from?"

"I am Doctor Tony Newman and let's just say that I am from somewhere very far away."

"Hey Rob, what the heck is a doctor?" the bear asked the fox as he scrunched up his nose.

* * *

**Arizona: Present Day  
**

Doug Phillips removed his suit's helmet as he stood inside of the tunnel. "Where's Tony?" he asked the technicians who had rushed to his side.

"We don't know" a uniformed military officer said as he stood watching the scientists around him desperately staring at the screens before them. "We seemed to have just lost him."

"General Kirk, he was just with me when we opened the tent flaps!"

"We saw, the whole thing with the meadow and then the two strange fox like animals," an older scientist said as he looked over at Doug. "Then you appeared back in the tunnel, but Tony did not."

"Doctor Swain, are you saying that he just disappeared?" Doug asked as he stepped off of the tunnel's platform. "Have we lost him in time?"


	2. That's Impossible

**Chapter 2: That's Impossible**

* * *

"**There is no point in using the word 'impossible' to describe something that has clearly happened."  
― Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency**

**Judy and Nick await their fate after the accident. **

* * *

**Zootopia: 2016 **

"Nick, he came out of nowhere!" Judy glumly said again, seemingly for the umpteenth time since the accident had happened. The two officers sat in their shared oversized cubicle at the station and waited. "I swear that the road was clear when I hit the gas!" She was nervously tugging at her right ear while her nose twitched, a habit Nick had never seen her do before. Her other ear was flat against her back and she was nervously tapping the chair leg with her right foot.

"I didn't see him either, Carrots," Nick said as he now leaned back into his chair with his arms defiantly crossed. He felt like he was back in high school again and waiting to see the principal, something he knew too much about as a trouble youth. What he wasn't going to tell her was that he didn't see what was ahead of them, because he was to busily trying to act cool while he concentrated on snapping open and putting on his new pair of expensive mirrored sunglasses. "You told the traffic investigation team what happened."

"I am so fired!" the gray bunny sniffled. The fox was afraid that she was going to start crying again like she did that day under the bridge. "I'm so sorry I got you into this Nick!"

His nostril's flared slightly in anger, THIS is way he didn't like working for others. He hated having to sit there, seemingly helpless, while awaiting for someone else to decide his fate. _Well good riddance to being a cop!_ He thought to himself and then it hit him. _But I really liked being something besides just another dishonest fox hustler for once in my life. I'm proud that I broke the stereotypes for a fox and I worked hard at getting here, but without Judy is it worth it? _He balled his fists together and tried to act like he didn't care about what was going on by propping his feet onto his desk while he leaned back in his chair. He only did that because he knew from the other officers that Bogo hated seeing anyone do that. "If they fire you, then I'm going to…" he began to state, but his words were interrupted by a bellowing voice, causing him to jump slightly in a startled manner and almost falling out of the chair.

"Hopps! Wilde!" Bogo's firm voice hollered down the hallway. "My office…NOW!"

Nick glanced at Judy, who looked up at him with wide eyes which were on the verge of tears. Placing a paw softly on her shoulder, he leaned over and whispered to her, "Do you remember what I told you in the gondola that morning after I told off Bogo in the Rainforest District? I told you that I'm never going to let anyone see that they got to me again, so don't let them get the satisfaction of seeing that they got to you either Carr…ah, Judy."

She softly nodded as she followed him past the other officers, who were watching the two rookies walking towards the stairs and Ben gave them a sad look as they passed by the reception desk. The rotund cheetah looked almost as unhappy as he did that day during the Savage Predator Outbreak, when they had him pack his stuff after Bogo had reassigned him to records. "Judy…" the big cat began to say, but his voice trailed off as he watched them slowly climb the stairs.

Standing in front of the Chief's open office door, they were both surprised to see another officer inside, a nerdy looking badger in a wrinkled uniform, and also a whitetailed deer in a blue suit. "Look…Look!" the badger was excitedly exclaiming to Bogo as the massive bull leaned over and adjusted his reading glasses while he watched something on his computer's monitor. "See…see…see…he just appears as if he popped out of thin air! Now the bank's camera…look…look…he's not there and now he is!"

The badger quickly typed on the keyboard again and pointed at what was now on the screen. "Here is the video from the traffic camera," he wildly proclaimed, almost hopping from one foot to the other in his excitement. "There! He just showed up just as she hits the gas. He wasn't there before!"

"Someone just can't pop out of, what did you say? Oh yes, you said he popped out of thin air in front of a police car," the deer buck sarcastically snapped out. "The cameras have been hacked."

"That is impossible, you can't hack a police car's dash camera and a bank's ATM camera. Plus there's the traffic camera…okay, that one is easy enough to hack…but then there is the camera at the entrance of the jewelry store," the nerdy officer objected. "That one shows that no one was on the sidewalk at the time."

"Still…" the buck snorted.

"I'm sure that someone in the mayor's office can confirm what Officer Smitty has shown us," Chief Bogo sighed. Looking up, he saw the rabbit and fox standing were now standing in the doorway. "Get in here you two! You should already know our tech guy Officer Smitty and this is Jacob Antlersmith from the mayor's office."

Nick threw the badger a lazy salute and stuck out his paw towards the deer buck. The buck looked him over, but didn't offer his hoof for a shake, and so Nick lowered his paw. _Great another damned bigot_, the fox thought to himself as he looked the haughty acting deer over. _We are so screwed. _

Bogo caught the deer's attitude however and stepped between him and the fox. "Mister Antlersmith is here to take your formal statement about what happened for the city's Committee on Police Activities, you will only do that once Sammy Winterson with the police union arrives," he firmly stated. "Do not speak about the case until he arrives."

Nick had heard of Sammy Winterson, the police union's attorney. He was a street smart arctic wolf, who was renowned by the officers for being one of the best lawyers that the union had to represent you if you were in trouble or under investigation by internal affairs. _I'll have to thank Wolford for pulling some strings to get his cousin Winterson on our case_, Nick realized, trying not to smile at the look the buck threw Bogo. _I'm sure good old Wolford wanted to make sure it was someone from the union who wouldn't let them screw over another candid._

"Chief, what is going on with the…the…mammal I hit?" Judy blurted out much to Nick's and Chief Bogo's annoyance.

"Carrots, what did he just tell you?" Nick softly whispered with the hopes that only she could her him.

"I'm sure that Officer Hopps did not mean to say that in quite that manner," a voice called out from behind them. They turned to see a tall white furred wolf in a blue pinstriped business suit standing in the doorway. "I would further recommend that both of my clients refrain from such further outbursts until I have had time to counsel them of them of their legal rights."

"This is going to take all day, isn't it?" Antlersmith grumbled as he shook his head. "Fine, just do your thing wolf and then let me know when you are ready for the interview. Things are bad enough with Hopps and Wilde's pictures being splashed all over the news because of the accident, but we are trying to keep information concerning the victim…"

"Alleged victim!" Sammy Winterson quickly corrected the deer.

"Okay, I'll play your game," Antlersmith sighed. "The ALLEGED victim's description is under wraps until someone can tell us what he is. Right now he is being described as just another fox, which all the news talk show hosts are having a field day about. They are all blabbing about the irony of a reckless rabbit police officer and her fox partner, running over another fox."

"Actually, it looks like the…whatever he is…hit the patrol car!" Officer Smitty quickly interjected.

"Well your boss in city hall has some other problems concerning this accident," Sammy added as he handed Antlersmith a sheet of paper.

"That is impossible!" the deer huffed out as he gave the wolf a disbelieving look.

"What is it?" Bogo demanded.

"The alleged victim is biologically indeed a hybrid mix of rabbit and fox," Sammy answered as he snatched the sheet of paper from the deer's hoofs and handed it to Chief Bogo. "He also came into the hospital suffering several broken bones, a fractured skull, and other injuries which…well…let's just say these have already apparently mended themselves."

"That's impossible!" Judy cried out. "I saw him on the ground myself."

"Impossible, that's what I said!" Antlersmith groaned. "We need to keep the lid on this until we find out exactly what is going on here."

"The mayor's office isn't currently very well trusted by the citizens of this city after Lionheart and the kitnapped savage mammals episode…" Winterson began.

"Then there was Bellwether and her terrorist plot to make preds savages, which Judy and I also solved," Nick quickly interjected, hoping to remind everyone how he and Judy had saved the city. "So did this fox rabbit guy say who he is and where he is from?"

"Not quite," the wolf sighed as he shook his head. "He doesn't remember anything except he thinks that you, Officer Wilde, is his father. When I asked how he knew Officer Wilde, all he did was repeat Nick's last name over and over again in a weird manner, I think it went something like Waah-i-ald. Yeah, he kept saying something like…she calls me Waah-i-ald."

"Do you think if Officer Wilde went over to interview him, that he might be able to shake his memory?" Chief Bogo asked as he set the paper down.

"Hopps should at least be suspended with pay and Wilde should be on desk duty until this is settled!" Antlersmith objected. "We can't have them anymore involved in this then they already are."

The phone buzzed and Clawhauser's voice came over the speaker, "You've got a call Chief!"

"Not now Clawhauser!" Bogo snapped back after he slammed his hoof on the button.

"It's the mayor sir," the fat cheetah quickly replied. "She said it was urgent."

"Why didn't she call me first?" Antlersmith snapped in an agitated tone as Chief Bogo answered the phone. Nick watched as the bull did more listening than talking to the mayor and while watching, he didn't realize his tail had instinctively wrapped itself protectively around Judy's legs.

Slowly Chief Bogo hung the phone up and pinched his snout between his eyes with his right hoof as he looked glumly down at the desk, Nick knew from experience that was not a good sign."

"Well?" the whitetailed deer buck demanded. "What did she say?"

"Wilde and Hopps," Chief Bogo looked over at the fox and rabbit standing by the door. "You are to report to the hospital right away, the federal government is now involved.

* * *

**Arizona: Present Day**

Doug leaned back as he sipped his coffee and watched two of the technicians debating the morality of history. "History is a funny thing, especially when we look back it from a future perspective," the young white male in a wrinkled white lab coat stated as he leaned forward towards the older African-American female sitting across from him. "What was once considered as normal or acceptable social norms may now be viewed upon as being wrong or even deviant by our standards today. Did you know that smoking cigarettes was once recommended by doctors as a way to calm someone's nerves?"

"Honey, you are still not going to convince me that Robert E Lee was a hero of any sort," she scoffed back.

"Our perceptions of historical figures change over time, especially when we refuse to view their actions in the context of when they were alive," he said. "Who knows, there may be some reality out there where his actions…"

Doug shook his head as he stood up and walked towards the cafeteria door. "Some reality out there…" he began to chuckle, but he hesitated. "Another reality?" he spoke to himself even louder. "Did we possibly break into another reality?" Running towards the door, he sprinted towards the machine and where Doctor Swain was scrolling through a database. "We broke into another reality!" he shouted to the doctor. "Tony is still there, in a reality where animals are anthropomorphic."

"That is impossible, the tunnel was built for time travel and not inter-dimensional travel, besides there is no creditable scientific proof that other realities even exist. Now step back, we are going to fire the machine up again and send in a probe."

With a punch on the keyboard, the tunnel began to hum to life. "Launch the probe," Doctor Swain called out as they watched the robot roll up the ramp and toward the tunnel's entry. Before the machine could continue, there was a sudden white flash.

* * *

**2016 Zootopia**

"There is no creditable scientific proof that other realities even exist," Doctor James Nutley scoffed at the suggestion that the intern had made and then the small squirrel in the white lab coat watched the very young goat at the computer. "Other realities, really! So that is your suggestion on where this halfbreed came from? I know you are still very young Whitehorn, but this is not some sci-fi show and you need to learn to keep that imagination of yours in check. The possibility of there being alternative realities is impossible and now that the feds are involved, we can run a nationwide search of all recorded DNA samples. His parents will soon be located and then we can get them to tell us how they did this."

"If they are still alive," the young goat sighed.

About an hour later, they had their first match. "Judith Laverne Hopps," the young goat named James Whitehorn said as he sat back and looked at the screen before him. "The probability of parentage came out just shy of 100%, you can't get better than that!"

"Hey, that's the name of the cop who ran this guy over!" Nutley yelled out as he hopped onto the floor and climbed up so he could see the screen. "Her partner is a red fox too, so let's check him as being the possible father."

"Still this doesn't make sense, the hybrid is in his late teens and Hopps is only in her mid-twenties, she should be too young to be his mother."

"You know how rabbits are, maybe she hit puberty early?"

"Really doctor? Not that young!"

Across the hospital, in a secured area, Nick Wilde entered the room and looked down at the strange almost fox looking creature who laid there strapped to the bed. The room was a typical secured hospital room with light gray painted walls and crisp white tiles on the floor. There was no other furniture besides the slightly oversized bed upon which the patient was being securely restrained. Its occupant looked almost fully healthy and did not show any of the physical trauma he had undergone earlier when he was hit by the very large police cruiser. Although the two of them seemed alone, the room had several cameras and Nick knew that both the doctors and the federal agents were watching them and listening to every word which would be said. He and Judy had already spent hours telling and then retelling their story to what seemed like a small army of doctors, researchers, and federal agents. Finally they collectively decided to send Nick into the room to find out what he could about the enigma they were calling John Doe.

"Out there in the street, you thought I was your father?" Nick asked the hybrid as he stopped by the bed. "Your father is a red fox, do you remember his name?"

"I don't remember much," Ricky sadly shook his head as he replied. "My memories come and go through my mind, but I can't remember much of anything. The only thing I really know is that I'm not supposed to be here."

"Here, as in Zootopia?"

"No, as in here …in this place…this time, this…well, as in all of this!"

Nick sighed as he sat on the corner of the bed next to the creature. "You really don't remember anything do you?" he softly asked. "This isn't some kind of elaborate hustle is it?"

Ricky gave out a yelp as his eyes began to glow white.

"What's wrong?" Nick yelled as he grabbed the now thrashing hybrid's shoulder, even as he punched a panic button on the wall by the bed.

Several doctors and security guards charged into the room just as a white light flashed and then before their very eyes both the hybrid and the fox disappeared!


	3. Days of Peace & Music

**Chapter 3: Days of Peace & Music**

* * *

"**You will not ever perceive the truth that is reality. There are many realities."**

**Paul Watson**

**Nick and Ricky find themselves in a very strange place. **

* * *

**2016 Zootopia **

Earlier that afternoon, Judy found herself locked in a room at the hospital, completely stripped of her uniform and wearing a hospital gown. Every time a nurse or a doctor came in to see her, she'd ask what was going on and would only be told that she would be told at the appropriate time. At first she thought that they were giving her a physical and drawing her blood as part of the investigation concerning her accident. Then a portly female rabbit came in and began to ask about her sex life.

"What does my sex life have to do with me hitting that poor…" Judy hesitated in her question and frowned before she continued. "Just what kind of mammal is he?"

"You seem to be very close to your partner Nick," the doctor asked, ignoring her question. "Have you two ever had sex before?"

"NO!" Judy answered. She didn't realize that she had raised her voice. "I haven't had sex with Nick or anyone."

"At your age, you're still a virgin?" the other rabbit asked in surprise. Now her nose was twitching with curiosity.

"Look, I just haven't met the right guy," Judy huffed out, trying not to blush with embarrassment. "I can't be the only rabbit my age that hasn't, well you know?"

"Just hop up on the bed so I can confirm…" the doctor began.

"I'm going to do no such thing!" Judy snapped back in anger, cutting the doctor's request off.

"Please Officer Hopps, just do as I ask or I will have to have security come in and make you."

"Just what is going on around here?"

"Please, this will only take a minute and then I will get someone to come and tell you everything."

Judy reluctantly jumped up on the table and stared angrily at the door when the doctor pulled up her gown.

There were sounds of a scuffle and yelling from outside of the room. Suddenly the door flew open with a loud bang and Nick frantically bust into the room. The fox turned and tried to barricade it with a chair. "Carrots, did you hear what they are…" he began to say as he turned back towards her, but hesitated when he saw what was going on and quickly turned around again. "Sorry Fluff!" he stuttered out, forgetting that he too was only dressed in a hospital gown. "I didn't know that…" he hesitated again and was seemingly at a loss for words.

Pulling her gown down to cover herself, she couldn't help but grin at the sight of the Nick's naked behind. "I've never seen a red fox blush before," the doctor next to her commented.

"Nick you can turn around," Judy giggled. Just then the door flew open and several wolves in black combat fatigues burst into the room with taser rifles aimed at Nick.

Nick turned back around with his paws in the air. "Look all I want is answers," he softly asked.

"Then maybe it's time to give you those answers?" a voice said. Standing at the doorway was a tall thin gray furred hare with black stripes on his ears. He stood there with his paws seemingly thrust into his black suit jacket's pockets. Before either the rabbit or fox could reply, the hare looked at the doctor and asked, "Virgin?"

"Yes, Agent Savage," the doctor replied as she washed and dried her paws in the nearby sink.

"Well, she is also too young to be his mother," the agent signed with a shrug.

"Wait, you think Judy is that thing's, mother?" Nick asked in surprise.

"I can't be his mother!" Judy protested as she jumped off the bed.

"Yes you are and the DNA test indicate that you Nick are really his father," the hare replied. "I think it is time for the two you to get dressed. Since he seems to think you are his father, Office Wilde, we want you to go into his room and have a little chat with him."

Both Nick and Judy gaped in surprise when the hare turned and just walked away.

"Hey, we're not done furball!" Nick yelled as he tried to follow the mysterious agent, but his way was blocked by the two security guards.

Half an hour later Nick did as he was told and went to talk to his so called son. Now they both were missing and had seemingly disappeared right before everyone's eyes!

* * *

**1969 Bethel, New York- Sunday, August 17, 2:15 a.m. **

Nick found himself face first in a rain soaked patch of weeds as his stomach roiled after whatever had a happened to him and he looked over at the half naked fox looking creature who was curled up on the ground next to him in a now muddy hospital gown. "What did you do?" Nick choked out as he sat up. There was the sound of loud music coming from behind them and he realized they were at the edge of a small brush lined clearing. The ground beneath them was wet, not only from the rain which had previously fallen, but had also been churned into mud by what appeared by too many paws or hoofs.

The fox's nose caught the scent of something familiar and he turned, sniffing towards its source. What he saw shocked him and he sat there looking into the semidarkness at the wild hairy thing holding a smoldering joint and the strange looking beast before him was gaping back at him equally surprised.

The creature blew smoke from its nostrils and stared at him from under his brushy mane of dark lanky greasy looking hair, below what appeared his nose, was a bunch of long curly unkempt fur protruding from around its mouth and hanging down to its chest. Outside of that fur, the thing…whatever it was…had very little fur covering its pink skin.

"Come on!" Nick frantically urged the hybrid as he stood and pulled his younger fox rabbit companion further into the dark woods. The fox's ears laid flat upon his head as he realized that around him were hundreds, if not thousands of similar looking creatures in various states of dress and undress. It was the largest herd of any mammals he had ever seen before, if they were mammals?

From where they hid in the brush, Nick could see the…thing…whatever it was looking at his smoldering white paper joint and then over at another creature laying on the ground nearby. "Dude!" it called out in perfect common language and his voice reminded Nick of Yax, the owner of Mystic Springs Oasis. At least he could thank the gods that this creature was wearing some clothes. "Where'd you get this stuff? I could swear that I just saw a dog dressed like the fuzz sneaking around here!"

"Man, don't tell me you let me oversleep?" the creature he was talking to grumbled as he sat up and wiped sleep from his eyes before taking the joint from other one's paw. "Come on dude, we are missing her!"

Nick scrunched down further in the weeds and bushes as he looked towards where the two weird looking creatures were walking. Grabbing his muddy companion he tried not to scream out in fear as he frantically shook the younger fox rabbit. "What did you do to us and where are we?" he hissed out in a loud whisper. "What are these things?"

"I don't know?" the hybrid whimpered in fear as he tried to break away from the fox's now painful grip. "I want to go home!"

There was someone playing some very familiar music on what appeared to be a stage erected in what was once farmland. "Is that Janice Hooplin on stage?" Nick whispered as he stood up and tried to see the stage better.

That was the fox's undoing, because what he guessed must have been a as a female version of the creatures, squealed in delight as she grabbed him from his hiding place. "Look everyone, there's a police dog!" she called out to her friends.

Nick didn't know what to do and he pushed at her as he tried to get away. Afraid to speak, he stayed silent as she gripped him in a tight hug and began petting his head. Her scent was unlike any animal he had ever met, with an almost sour musk that was mixed with alcohol and drugs.

"You sure that's a dog?" one of her companions asked, he was unsteadily standing and reached over to stroke Nick under his ear. Despite his fear, that actually felt good and he frowned when he realized his tail had begun wagging.

"What a cute little puppy!" others began to proclaim as they gathered around and pawed at Nick. The fox tried not to panic as he was carried by the crowd toward the stage.

Whoever was on the stage had begun to sing a familiar song called _Me and Baabaa McGee, _except she sang the name Bobbie McGee instead. The creature on the stage's voice was eerily similar to that of Janice Hooplin's on the old vinyl album he liked to listen to on his vintage stereo.

"Someone lost their police dog!" a big creature yelled as he passed the now even more panicked Nick over the heads of the crowd and toward the stage, the next thing the fox knew he was thrust upon the stage near the singer.

"A lost puppy!" he heard the singer slur out as she leaned over and petted Nick on his head. She too smelled of drugs and booze.

"Janice get away from that…it's a fox!" another creature yelled as he ran towards them with a broom. "It might have rabies!" He swung the broom at Nick.

Leaping from the stage, Nick ran on his four paws through the crowd, which scrambled out his way. Desperately, he finally stood up as he ran in a panic and before him he saw the strange long eared fox rabbit waving at him.

"Gotch little dude!" one of the strange creature said as he grabbed him. "Come on puppy, you must be hungry."

Nick punched at the creature as he yelled, "Put me down!"

"Man, I must be tripping big time!" the thing yelled in surprise as he dropped Nick into the mud. "That police dog just talked to me, dude."

Nick was scared and he was mad. Standing up, he grabbed the larger creature by his vest and yanked him down so that they were muzzle to…what little muzzle it had. "Where are we?" he demanded. "And what the hell are you?"

"Little dude, cool it bro!" the creature said in surprise. "Don't bite me or nothing!"

"Where am I?" Nick growled again.

"Woodstock , this is the Woodstock, man…I mean dog!"

"Woolstock, as in 1969?"

"No, Woodstock as in upper state New York. The swami said that we were all children of the universe and should seek a greater…ah conscious. Have I done that and are you some kind of talking dog god? You know they say that dog is just god spelled backward?"

"No, you are drugged out and I'm just in your imagination," Nick lied. "So close your eyes and I will disappear. But my message to you is for you to stop the drugs and go home, make something of yourself." When the stoned and confused creature closed his eyes, the fox quickly scurried off into the darkness.

Nick had just reached the fox like creature with long ears and he grabbed him as he pulled the hybrid into a nearby weed choked field. "We're getting as far from this place as possible," the fox hissed at his companion. "We need to find someplace safe and hidden, before the sun comes up."

Ricky nodded as he followed the fox further into the field, trying to avoid any of the thousands of creatures who were milling around in the predawn darkness. After what seemed like forever, they slipped under some barbed wire and fled into the nearby woods.

"We need to rest for a while," Nick panted out as he found a place to sit down on a log by a nearby stream. The sun was just rising in the east, although it was hidden by a heavy layer of clouds. Turning towards the fox rabbit, he asked, "Do you have any idea how you got us here?"

"No," the hybrid answered. "I'm scared and want to go home!"

"Look kit, do you have any idea of where your home is located?" Nick asked, only to have his companion shake his head. "The docs say you're in your teens, do you know just how old?"

"No!"

"You can at least tell me your name. You've got to remember that?"

"I think it might be Ricky or something, although she calls me Waah-i-ald!"

"Who calls you that?"

"My wife, at least I think she's my wife?"

"Aren't you too young to be married?"

"I don't know, I can't remember!" he began to sniffle. "I just know I want to get back to her and I am lost…so lost!"

"Okay Ricky…" Nick began, but there was the sound of paws running down the stream and he looked over to see a very wild and very naked red fox running towards them with a chicken in his jaws. The fox looked at them in fear and then gave a growl before he ran off. "What was that about?"

There was the sound of something barking, a deep bark, and splashing down the stream came two very strange looking creatures running on their four paws too and stark naked in their short brown fur. At the sight of Nick and Ricky they growled and lunged at them with their jaws open.

"What the hell are those, some kind of wolf?" Ricky called out as he stood up and ran towards a nearby tree with Nick right behind him. The hybrid hopped into the air and grabbed a branch before he began frantically climbing further up into the tree, but Nick couldn't reach the branch and was trapped. The larger creatures surrounded him still growling and snapping his direction as they cautiously drew closer. The fox was unarmed and took a fighting stance, knowing that this might be his last stand.

"Look guys, I don't want to fight you," Nick said as he readied himself for unarmed combat.

"Grab my paw!" Ricky called out and Nick looked up to see the fox rabbit hanging from a branch by his knees. He reached up and grasped the offered paws, surprised at the hybrid's strength as he began to pull him off the ground. One of the creature lunged at him snarling, just as Ricky called out in pain.

The pit bull hit the tree and fell back in confusion because the fox that he had tried to maul had just disappeared in a white flash. Sniffing the ground, he could not pick up its scent.

"Damn it!" a voice cursed and the two dogs looked over to see that their master was standing there with his shotgun. "Don't tell me you two lost that chicken thief again?"

They may not have understood the human's words, but they knew that tone in the farmer's voice, and so they both quickly began sniffing around for their prey's scent. The fox with his stolen feathered meal was long gone.

* * *

**Janice Hooplin would be the Zootopian version of Janice Joplin, who did play at Woodstock in 1969. **

**Woodstock was billed as being "3 Days of Peace & Music". The festival organizers were originally charging $6 a day, but as the larger than expected crowd showed up, they lost control of the gates and the festival became free. With over 350,000 people in attendance, Woodstock was both a financial and a logistical disaster. It will, however, be remembered as the greatest concert in history because of the music. Thirty-two acts played over what turned out to become almost four days and nights, often in the rain. Legendary musical greats such as Santana, Janis Joplin, Sly & the Family Stone, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, and even Sha Na Na were on stage. **

**That Swami would be Swami Satchidananda who became known as the "The Woodstock Guru." He opened the concert series with a prayer for peace, which included: "**_**Often we hear groups of people shouting, "Fight for Peace." I still don't understand how they are going to fight and then find peace. Therefore, let us not fight for peace, but let us find peace within ourselves first."**_

**Of course Nick would not recognize a dog. Wolves had never been domesticated by humans and therefore, dogs didn't exist in his reality. **


	4. Of Kings, Bandits, & Travelers

**Chapter 4: Of Kings, Bandits, & Travelers  
**

* * *

"**It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane."  
― ****Philip K. Dick, ****VALIS**

**Robin tells Tony about his return to Sherwood Forest. Nick and Ricky find themselves in yet another reality. Plus an answer to where Judy was when Nick and Ricky first disappeared. **

* * *

**Nottingham: 1215**

"So Rob what are we going to do with this guy?" Little John asked as they trudged along the dirt trail after the red fox in the green tunic, who had shouldered his bow and was merrily leading them further into the dense forest before them. "I vote we take him to the sheriff in Nottingham and let Old Chompers deal with him!"

"The Sheriff of Nottingham?" Tony asked in surprise. "I thought he was your enemy?"

"He twas at one time!" Robin scoffed. "That twas lang before good King Richard returned."

"Old Richie kicked Johnnie out of his throne and sent his brother and his lackeys running," the bear added with a chuckle. "But you know how it is, you got the money to buy off the King's Justice and you can keep your job."

"So Richard is back on his throne?" Tony replied as he ducked under a branch only to have it snap back and hit the bear in his chest.

"Hey!" Little John growled out.

"Sorry about that!" Tony tried to innocently apologize. "It just…ah, slipped."

"For a guy who claimed he's traveled from far away, you sure don't know anything about what is going on?" the bears huffed out as he pushed the branch aside. "Old Richie went and got himself killed during the war overseas, we were there when it happened, and now John is the royal-pain-in-the-tail king."

"Aye and once again he taxes the poor of this fair land until they bleed!" Robin added. "So I have come home to join the rebellion, along with the sheriff and many of the barons. King John must be brought to terms before he ruins us all!"

"So you married Maid Marion?" Tony asked as he followed the fox under a fallen tree. He heard the larger bear curse because he had the climb over.

"Aye," the red fox said in a sad tone. His ears went flat upon his head and his tail dragged the ground. "Ours twas but a brief and passionate love. She twas a bonny lass of noble blood, much too fine for a rogue such as I."

"She died?" the human asked in surprise.

"No you idiot, Richie made me and Rob join him overseas right after they got married and Lady Marion was not at all happy about that," Little John answered. "She complained so much to King Richard, that he put her in a nunnery to just shut her up. Marion is still mad at him for putting his loyalty of the king over his love for her."

"Aye and she remains there even today," Robin Hood sighed out. "Alas, when I came back for her after all these many, many years, she hath refused to even see me! So I hath returned to this land, to Sherwood Forest, to raise my followers and led them into battle once again."

"Robin Hood and his Merry Men," Tony said with a smile. "Off to save jolly old England, just like in the stories!"

"Yeah…say what's a MEN anyways?" Little John asked as the tall bear scratched his nose. "Also where's this England place you're talking about?"

An arrow whistled though the air, landing at the foot of the fox. "Oo-De-Lally! It tis Robin!" a voice cried out and Tony looked up to see dozens of rabbits of various ages standing there, all with bows or spears.

"Your army is made of rabbits?" he asked in confusion. "A fox leading an army of rabbits, now I've seen everything."

"Nay, good sir!" Robin cried out with a joyous laugh. "These art but young Skippy's sons!"

"You know how rabbits are?" Little John whispered to Tony as he made an obscene gesture with his paws.

* * *

**Montana: 2018 **

"Damn it!" the dark haired engineer behind the keyboard cursed as she watched the round circular machine grind itself to a sudden stop after a huge white energy arc engulfed it. "Rufus, do you have any idea about what just happened?" Dust began to settle inside of the old once abandoned military bunker.

"Jiya, I don't have the slightest idea of what caused that," the other engineer replied as he looked at the now smoking pod that they had dubbed the Lifeboat while it came to a halt. "I'm sure our calculations were correct."

Both jumped away from the now still time machine when they heard a thump inside. "Call the others and tell Wyatt to come armed, we may have an uninvited guest!" Rufus snapped as he picked a pipe off an old dusty military green crate.

"Do you think that someone from Rittenhouse has somehow got inside when we were working?" Jiya asked as she picked up the old fashioned black telephone and punched a few buttons. Just then the pod's door hissed open and a pair of reddish orange ears popped out. "Is that a fox?"

Nick scowled when he saw two more of those relative furless things in the room before him, these two were not as pink skinned as the others they had saw in the muddy field earlier. "Now where are we?" he whispered to his companion who was lying curled up on the machine's floor in pain. Upon seeing the two creatures staring at him, he sighed and held up his paw and waved. "Hi, I'm Nick Wilde with the City of Zootopia Police Department and this is my … ah…friend Ricky. Anyways, I think we are lost?"

The was the telltale clicking sound of a gun being cocked and Nick looked over to see two more creatures entering the room, both of these had pinker skins and one was holding what appeared to be a gun. "Hands where I can see them!" the creature with the gun ordered as he drew closer.

"Wyatt, I think foxes have paws and not hands," the female creature with dark hair, said as she stood there staring at Nick and Ricky in surprise.

"Look my friend here is sick, do you have a doctor?" Nick called out as he stood there with his paws in the air.

"It would be more like a vet," the creature with the gun replied as he drew even closer. "Rufus check him for weapons."

"You two don't have rabies do you?" the creature known as Rufus suddenly asked as he cautiously drew closer. "Don't you bite me either!"

"No! I've had my shots," Nick replied. "I don't bite…do you?"

"I can't believe that I am patting down a talking fox," the creature just muttered. He pulled out Nick's wallet, his cellphone and business cards. "That's all he has, unless he has fleas."

"That was rude," Nick snapped. "Now can I put my paws down?"

"Keep them up and stay still," the creature with the gun ordered.

"Nicholas Piberius Wilde, City of Zooptopia," Jiya read Nick's driver's license. She pulled out some of his money and held it up. "Five bucks, this money actually has a picture of a deer buck on it!"

"His iphone has a carrot on it," Lucy said as she held it in her hand. "Password protected."

"This is a police badge and he has business cards," Rufus said as he held one of Nick's business cards up.

There was a groan and Ricky stumbled out of the time machine holding his head. "Dad, where are we?" he muttered out. "Why does this keep happening to me?" His eyes widened when he saw Wyatt aiming the gun at him.

"That one has no clothes on and I am not patting down a naked fox…if that is a fox?" Rufus quickly said.

A few minutes later, Nick and Ricky soon found themselves being detained in a small dusty room with the creature known as Wyatt sitting on a chair in front of the door.

"So you are from someplace where everyone is an animal?" Lucy asked as she held Nick phone, which she was now scrolling through his photos. "Walking, talking, and intelligent animals."

"But no humans?" Jiya added. She had been looking at the photos too. "Not one human being, you've never heard of us before?"

"Look I've only seen your kind before in a muddy field, someplace called Woodstock…"

"1969?" Wyatt exclaimed. "That was where we picked up that Rittenhouse had gone! Why Woodstock and who were they after?"

"I don't know?" Lucy said as she sat down by a laptop and began to search the website. "Did you see anyone strange there fox…I mean Nick?"

"Everyone there was strange to me," Nick replied.

"There was a guy who didn't look like the rest of the humans, he had black short hair and was carrying a gun," Ricky began answering as he look over at Nick. The hybrid was dressed in the only shirt they could find which wasn't too large, it was one of Jiya's tee shirts and was black with League of Draven printed on it, and it hung down past Ricky's knees. "He went towards the stage, but the commotion you caused made whoever he was after disappear into the crowd. I think he was after that guy you punched, dad?"

Nick sighed when Ricky called him his dad again. "You mean that freak who thought I was a fox god because I yelled at him," he finally added. "I told him to get off the drugs and to go home, to make something better of himself."

"Still who was so important at Woodstock that Rittenhouse would want dead?" Lucy asked again. "All I can find, besides the singers, is that there was someone who became a US Senator. There also were only two reported deaths at the event, a drug overdose and some poor kid who got run over by a tractor."

* * *

**Zootopia: 2016**

"So tell me what you know about Nick's past?" a pretty arctic fox vixen asked Judy as they sat in the hospital's dining room. She was dressed in a black suit and spoke with a heavy northern accent, much like many of the bears in Mister Big's employ. "He is rather handsome, da?"

"Look Agent Skye," Judy began to answer as she shoved her half eaten plate of roasted vegetables aside. At least she wasn't still dressed in a hospital gown. The vixen had appeared at her room earlier with a ZPD tee shirt and a pair of her dark blue police fatigue pants for her to wear, they obviously were from her locker back at the police station. "Nick is my best friend and nothing more. If you want to know about him why don't you just talk to him?"

"Agent Savage is prepping him right now, preparing him to interrogate your son," the vixen said with a smirk. Judy's ears shot up at that remark and this caused the fox to smile even more. "I know he is not your birth son, but still he has both your and Nick's DNA and so that makes him your son."

"He's not my son!" Judy snapped out.

"Of course," Skye agreed and then smiled again. She then stabbed her fork into one of the carrots on Judy's plate and gave it an almost sensual looking nip. "So you wouldn't mind if I made a pass at Nick?"

"Look, Nick is a big boy and he can take care of himself!" Judy tried to casually reply. She knew what the vixen was trying to do, she was trying to make her angry and by doing so she would tell her more about Nick and herself. It was one of the interrogation techniques taught at the academy, to make her jealous and then befriend her.

"Oh well, he's really not my type," Skye said as she tossed the remainder of the carrot back on the plate. "But you should stop lying to me and to yourself about how you really feel about Nick. Your scent and your body language both give you away. Still, I wonder if whoever made this creature realized that you two were really in love with each other?"

"I don't love Nick…" Judy lied.

"Sure you do. But still you had to have been just a child when they hybrid was created, so why you two? Are you sure that you and Nick never met before you became a police officer?"

"We never met before, I'm sure of it. Hey, maybe Doug Ramsey did this, he escaped and we never caught him. He did make the Night Howler drug."

"Pffft! You never will," the vixen laughed. "He didn't do this, trust me!"

"Do you know where he is?" Judy began to ask and then an alarm sounded.

Skye frowned as she looked down at her phone and read the message. "You're coming with me back to your room!" she snapped.

"Why, what's happened?" Judy asked as she stood up and looked around.

"You will be told at the appropriate time…" Skye began to answer.

"Wilde is gone and so is the hybrid!" someone yelled from across the room. "They both vanished and we're in lockdown!"

"Nick!" Judy screamed as she lunged towards the door, only to have the vixen grab her arm in a powerful grip. "Let me go, I need to find out what happened to Nick!" She took a swing at Skye, who deftly blocked the blow.

"Officer Hopps!" the vixen growled in a commanding tone. "You need to come with me to where you are safe and accounted for until we figure this out!"

Little did they know that Ricky had time jumped with Nick into another reality's past and was now lost in time.

* * *

**Additional disclaimer: **_I do not own the rights to Timeless or any of its characters. This story was written solely for the reader's enjoyment and without any profitable purposes…._

**Robin's foe King John did ascend to the throne after the death of his brother Richard in France. Richard "the Lionheart" was slain by an infection which had set into a wound he had received from a crossbow's bolt during the siege of ****Châlus-Chabrol****.**** His assailant turned out to be a mere boy, whom he forgave in a final act of chivalry on his death bed. Unfortunately the child was brutally flayed alive and hung by one of the king's captains after Richard died. John lost much of the lands his brother had defended in Normandy and faced rebellion at home. He would late be forced to sign the famous ****Magna Carta****, which limited the king's power. **

**Yes, in the show **_**Timeless**_** Jiya wore the ****League of Draven**** shirt Ricky is now wearing. **


	5. Shattered

**Chapter 5: Shattered **

* * *

"**History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake."  
― James Joyce, ****Ulysses**

**Things begin to unravel in time and reality. **

* * *

**Montana: 2018**

Jiya and Rufus sat back in their chairs with a look of defeat upon their faces, by all calculations the Lifeboat should have whirled to life during their last attempt. "So we are just going to sit here with those two?" Rufus asked his companion. The pretty dark-haired woman watched as the long-eared fox looking creature, who called himself Ricky, munched on an apple while he walked around upright on his back paws. "We've got groundbreaking proof that there are alternative realities and yet we can't tell anyone!"

"Yeah, but then again we've got proof of time travel too," she sighed. "Which only a few in the world know about and half of them are trying to change history so they can rule."

"So this thing can really take you into the past?" Ricky suddenly asked, his tail was swishing as he walked closer to the machine. "I still can't see how it can even work that way and how do you get enough power to return?"

"The machines batteries are sufficient too…" Jiya began to answer, but as the long-eared fox got closer to the Life Boat, it sparked to life after what looked like a bolt of lightning tore from the creature towards the machine. It tumbled and whirled as Ricky fell to the ground screaming while bolt after bolt tore through him.

"What just happened?" Rufus yelled as he stared at the computer terminal before him. "The machine seems to have just activated itself!" He watched in confusion as Jiya ran towards Ricky while calling for help.

"No, something from that fox thing just activated the Life Boat!" an accented voice spoke from the doorway and a handsome, well dressed dark-skinned man entered the room. His name was Conner Mason and he at one time was one of the world's wealthiest inventors, before he went rogue and Rittenhouse agents used the government to seize his businesses. "It's as if it is pulling some type of energy from him!"

Across the multiverse time travel exploded into wild activity! The Time Tunnel roared to life again, even as in Victorian England another time machine hidden in an inventor's basement whirled as he began to travel towards the future. Within another reality, heroes in white uniforms winked out of their current timeline towards their past in an effort to save their universe and return those they lost, even as a scarlet-clad speedster ran fast enough to break the time barrier in his reality. Somewhere else, a teen in a speeding car broke the time barrier as he sped towards the past. In yet another reality, two seemingly really dumb teens began a journey in a phone booth to learn about history, so they could save their future and "party on, dudes." While this was happening, in yet another reality, a huge modern warship ship full of sailors sailed into a time storm which would lead to an infamous December morning in their navy's past.

"Dad!" Ricky screamed in pain, his body was now engulfed in the blinding white cracking light. Across the room, a sphere began to shimmer and the sound of its whirring noise filled the air it came into view, but it seemed to be shaking and spinning wildly as if it was out of control. Behind it, something which looked like a multicolored tunnel also appeared.

"That's the mothership!" Wyatt yelled as he drew his pistol. "Get behind cover, Rittenhouse has found us!"

Suddenly the machine was sucked into the tunnel with a loud bang!

* * *

**Arizona: Present Day**

"There is something inside the tunnel!" General Kirk yelled as he hit the alarm button. Before their eyes, a white circular machine appeared, but it was spinning wildly around and slamming into the Time Tunnel's wall.

"Get down!" Doug cried out just as there was a tremendous explosion.

* * *

**Nottingham: 1215**

Tony found himself surrounded by rabbits, white, grey, and tan furred rabbits who were all dressed in green or brown tunics and all standing on their hind paws as if they were human. He actual realized that they would all look cute and cuddly if they weren't pointing little bows and arrows at him.

"Robin, come hither!" another rabbit frantically yelled as he raced towards them. "The sheriff needs thy aid!"

"Fie, tis it King John and his lackeys?" the fox named Robin Hood called out as he snatched an arrow from the quiver on his hip and notched it into his bow. "Hath those villains ambushed the good Sheriff?"

"Nay! the sheriff and his knights doth battle a dragon which hath appeared from nowhere!" the rabbit cried out.

"A dragon?" the fox yelled as he sprinted after the rabbit.

"You have dragons around here?" Tony called over to the big bear next to him.

"I've never seen one before," Little John grunted as he picked up his staff and lumbered after the fox. "But then again, neither Rob nor I have seen your kind either!"

They chased after Robin as he ran down the dirt trail and weaved through the trees, around the fox were other mammals of all sizes and manner, who also had either bows or spears. The sight which greeted them at the opening in the dense woods brought them all to an abrupt halt as the stared in surprise at the beast before them. The creature turned and gave an earth-shaking roar.

"By the gods, it tis a dragon!" the fox muttered. He stood there with his bow lowered and his muzzle hanging open in surprise. He snapped out of his astonishment when the creature seized an armored war steed in its toothy gaping jaws. The knight scream in pain as the razor-sharp teeth pierced his chain mail and plate armor as the beast shook its large head. "Nay!" Robin cried out as he fired his arrow.

"Holy Jehoshaphat, it is a dragon!" Little John exclaimed as he ground to a halt. The bear didn't even grunt when Tony slammed into his rear end and bounced onto the ground.

Looking up at the creature, Tony stared in disbelief for standing in the center of the glade was a real living dinosaur. It roared again as it snapped at a large timber wolf in armor, who in returned dodge the bite as he swung his sword at the huge headed beast. It stood well over forty feet and had black beady eyes in its greyish skin. The beast's head itself was well over five feet in length itself and its mouth was full of pointed teeth. It moved swiftly on its powerful long legs, but its small arms seemed to wave uselessly. "That's no dragon!" he cried out. "That's a Tyrannosaurus rex!"

"I don't care what its called!" Little John yelled out. "Just tell me how we can kill it?"

"You can't with these weapons," Tony answered as he climbed to his feet. "We need to run into the woods, to the densest parts where he can't reach us!"

"Robin Hood runs from no one!" the fox proclaimed as he fired yet another arrow at the beast. He then grunted when Little John seized him and the bear frantically fled with the fox under his right arm towards the woods. Tony, the armored wolf and his knights, along with all the others had already desperately joined him in his hasty flight.

* * *

**Western Sahara Desert: 1942**

The diminutive fennec fox in the tan combat fatigues stood on top of a sand dune and stared in awe at the large armored tank before him. Behind him, his own column of tanks had been reduced to smoldering wrecks one at a time by the tan painted armed war machine which had now halted and sat idling. Six of his army's best tanks had been easily blown up by his opponent's long powerful cannon, while his tanks own 50-mm guns proved useless. He himself had been blown out of a tank's hatch when it blew up and by some miracle, he had survived uninjured when he landed in a patch of soft brown sand.

He had ordered his soldiers to fire first at the tank idling before him since it didn't look like anything he had ever seen before. At first, he thought it must have belonged to the allies, but now as he stood there, he wasn't as sure. He had never seen a creature like the one he saw in the tank's turret.

Sam Waterson pulled the bolt back on the Browning heavy machine gun as he aimed it at the strange long-eared fox on the dune. "Matterson, have you reached the anyone with the squadron yet?" he called out over the M-1A1 tank's intercom. "Where's the rest of the column and who are these bozos who fired at us?"

"I don't think we are in Iraq anymore boss!" the driver called up. "This desert isn't anything close to what we were rolling on just a few moments ago and where did the other tanks go?"

"I don't know?" Sam sighed as he looked over at the small fox. "Maybe this little guy knows something?"

He's a fox boss!" Matterson grunted as he pushed open a hatch and looked out. "A real small fox dressed in what looks like a German uniform from the Second World War and standing up looking at us with his tiny binoculars...okay I have to agree that's weird, but maybe he was a pet?"

"Well, let's go catch him!" Sam yelled as he crawled out the hatch and onto the tank.

* * *

**Beyond Space and Time**

Time and Reality were shattered and the damage would reverberate beyond what any of the mere mortals or the gods themselves could attempt to understand. In his Mobius Chair, floating beyond the darkness of space and time, the so-called New God known as Metron stared at what was happening and frowned. He had seen this all before, a god was being reborn and his birth pains would ripple beyond his own reality this time. Metron realized that he had to be stopped and the god in the chair also knew that the only one who could stop the damage and save everyone was a rabbit.

* * *

**Additional Disclaimer: Metron belongs to DC Comics**

**If you know who those other time travelers are, leave your answers in the story's comments.**

**Yes Seakard, I do have stock in the companies who make aspirin! (LOL) **


	6. Oh, Rats!

**Chapter 6: Oh, Rats!**

* * *

"**Plot as such is not a major ingredient in my novels... it's often better to sail on the unconscious sea."  
― ****Richard Adams**

**The plot thickens as the Time Bandits enter the story and it looks like the mayhem continues as we continue our stormy journey on that "unconscious sea". **

* * *

**Nottingham: 1215**

They hid in the densest part of the woods, among the overgrown brambles and wild prickly hawthorn stands. The large "dragon" had tracked them into the deepest parts of Sherwood Forest, its huge head sniffing the ground as if it was a hound dog. "Fie, our bows hath no effect upon the beastie!" Robin lamented as he listened to the T-Rex moving in the distance.

Tony watched while the black wolf had removed his helmet and frowned at the fox, "It must not be allowed to get out of these woods, among the farms and villages nearby."

"Aye good Sheriff, that would be terrible indeed," Robin agreed. "But how do we slay yon beastie?"

There was a distant blast of horns, which drew the attention of not only of those hiding in the woods, but that of the great beast too. "I had reports that the king was marching towards Nottingham, but I did not expect him for several more days at least!" the sheriff said as he sniffed the air.

There were the sounds of crashing trees and the heavy trod of the great carnivore dinosaur could be heard when it turned from stalking its hidden prey and stormed towards the sounds of horns and pounding drums.

"Rob, from the way that thing is running, you'd think someone rang the dinner bell!" Little John called out as he ambled after the fox.

"They might as well have!" Tony huffed as he followed.

Minutes later, there were cries of fear as the huge creature emerged from the woods and charged at the hundreds of kights and their followers. It was among them before they could form ranks, tearing with its blood stained teeth. A scream was cut short when a armored rhino's head was bitten off. Valiantly, some knights and men-at-arms attacked the large beast.

From the darkness of the woods, Robin and his followers watched as the king's army fled the field and as the great beast feasted upon those it had slain.

* * *

**Western Sahara Desert: 1942**

There was no way that he or his tank crew was going to catch the small uniformed fennec fox as it ran, surprisingly almost human-like on its two legs, into the desert before them. "Damn that little, long-eared guy is fast!" Matterson cursed as they watched the tan fox sprint away into the hot burning sands. The soldier stood on top of the tank's turret while he held his cell phone up in the air, as if he could get a signal. "There is nothing on the radio and the GPS is down, I think we are really, really lost!"

"No shit, Sherlock!" Sam grunted out as he pulled himself back onto the large armored vehicle. He watched as the tank's gunner, Terry McMahon, returned from looking at the still-burning smaller tanks. The uniformed soldier cradled his carbine in the crook of his arm. "You find any survivors?"

"No, but what I found doesn't make any sense," the blond haired soldier called back as he shook his head. "There are animals in those tanks, but no humans."

"Are you telling me that they had pets driving tanks?"

"Not pets boss, but wolves and what looked like hyenas! I peeked inside of one and saw a burnt body of a wolf sitting in the driver's seat and grasping what looked like the tank's gear sticks. I think those…ah, wolf things were manning those tanks."

"This is like some kind of bad horror movie," Matterson quipped. "The tanks were driven by werewolves."

"Don't forget the hyenas!" Terry added. "Werewolves and werehyenas, if there are such things."

"Okay let's take stock of our supplies and munitions after that engagement," Sam sighed as he scanned the horizon. "We don't have any idea where the others are or even where we are."

There were the sounds of pattering paws on the sand and the small uniformed fox frantically ran over the nearest dune and towards the tank, its ears were flat in fear. "The sands!" he barked out in rough English, surprising everyone. "There is something in the sands!"

* * *

**Montana: 2018**

The temporal discharges flew out of Ricky's body like blinding bright white lightning even as the strange hybrid screamed in excruciating pain. Both Jiya and Rufus fled back towards their now sparking laptops and stared in awe at what was happening around them. Ghostly apparitions of creatures both familiar looking and strange, appeared and then faded in the air around them. They were the faint images of travelers moving through time.

"Daaaad!" Ricky screamed as another bolt tore from him and into the Lifeboat. His paw was stretched toward Nick. "Help meee!"

"No, don't touch him!" Conner frantically yelled as he tried to keep the strange human acting fox from running toward the other creature, but he was too late.

It was a latent father's primal instinct to comfort his injured child which caused Nick to reach out towards the hybrid who called himself Ricky. The long-eared fox's eyes were blazing white and crackled with what looked like an electrical discharge. When his paw clasped Ricky's, Nick felt a painful tingling running through his body while he went rigid, it was as if he had been shot by a taser only ten times worse.

The humans watched as the two fox-like beings suddenly winked out of existence and so did what they would come to call the time storm. An eerie quiet descended upon the bunker, which was suddenly broken by the crackling sparks from what remained of their time machine.

The tingling Nick felt was gone and the fox knew his body had died, he had been electrocuted. His heart was no longer beating and he felt his soul slipping from its earthly shell. Ghost like, his spirit floated in the darkness around him and looked back at his body. He was expecting to see a tunnel of light or something calling his spirit to come to it, however, there was nothing but the darkness and he was afraid. Memories began to invade his mind and not all were the ones he was familiar with, they were from versions of himself in other realities.

_He was a drunk, lounging under a bridge and cursing the shock collar around his neck which had brought him such misery in his life as he chugged another mouthful of the cheap wine in the bottle he held. _

_Then he was a tired old fox sitting in what was once Chief Bogo's office, he knew that he was desperately trying to keep a city from tearing itself apart. In his paw were photographs of officers he knew had died, including one of his beloved Judy._

_In yet another memory, he was one of those strange humans with only red fur atop his head and was humming as he adjusted his tie and ready himself for another day of hustling others out of their money._

_Then he stood on a park bridge downtown, just watching some ducks in the pond below, and next to him was a thin raccoon in a business suit who he knew was his best friend Jake. _

_His mind shifted yet again and he was sitting at a bar fondly watching his friend Finnick teasing another much younger fennec fox, a surfer named Stone Kole who he realized was Finn's once lost son._

Even as he floated there in the darkness, he felt someone tugging his paw, pulling him back and then it was if he was sucked into a vortex. He frantically gasped and clutched his chest when his heart started beating again. Nick looked up and saw that the hybrid fox rabbit was still clutching his paw while he frantically looked around. Before them was a peacefully scenic meadow filled with flowers and also an empty tent. Nick could hear the sound of distant surf and glanced over to see the sun sparkling off an ocean. "Nockotia!" the teen next to him frantically yelled. "Nockotia!" he called again, his voice was broken with tears because he knew that she was not there. "Oh gods, where are you?"

The scenery shifted yet again, it was now night and it was both raining and cold in the meadow. The tent was gone and the flowers were too. Nick felt an older Ricky release his paw and stumble into the wet darkness, he followed him towards what he thought were two stones. The long-eared fox fell to his knees and gave a heart-wrenching sob even as he reached out to trace a name carved upon what Nick realized was a gravestone. It read Nockotia Wilde and on the other stone was the name, Natasha Wilde. Nick didn't need to ask who these two vixens were, for he knew in his heart that they were once his son's wives.

Lighting rent the sky, but not from above, as Ricky stood with his paws glowing white while he stared towards the heavens above. "You won't let me die and you won't let me rest, come and face me damn you! I remember!" he screamed into the darkness.

"Who?" Nick asked as he reached over and tried to grasp his son's arm. "Who are you calling?"

"God!" the hybrid said in an angrily bitter tone, which was like a curse.

* * *

**Zootopia: 1925**

"Keep an eye out for that stupid alligator!" Randall commanded. "It's bad enough that the Supreme Being turned us from our beautiful short selves into these…"

"Rats!" Stutter called out, cutting off the other former dwarf's words.

"What's wrong?" Fidget asked as he turned towards the other rat, who was searching in the woods.

"No, I said rats!" Stutter repeated himself. "The Supreme Being turned us into rats."

"If he knows everything, then why does he have us rooting around in this swamp looking for a broken pocket watch?" Og complained, his nose was twitching in frustration.

"Well we did almost screw up everything when we stole the time map," another rat named Walley added. "SB did let us off lightly for all we could have done to screw thing up."

"It was a setup!" Fidget huffed out. "SB only wanted to test the Evil Genius and we got the blame."

Less whining and more searching!" Randall squeaked out. "We need to find that watch."

"Who died and made you the boss?" Stutter complained. "You're always taking charge and telling us what to do. Stutter…do that! Fidget…get that! You are always bossing everyone around!" The small rat stamped his foot paw in anger.

"Ah, Guys!" a rat named Vermin suddenly called out. "Think I found it!"

"GAAAATORRRR!" Fidget screamed as he frantically scurried past them with his paws waving in fear.

* * *

**Wineo Nick: If someone slapped a shock collar on my neck like that, I'd take to the bottle too. **

**The version of Nick in Chief Bogo's old office is my homage to ****MisterMead's comic, **_**Judy is Dead. **_

**Nick drawn as a red-headed human can be found online by several artists.**

**You will find the raccoon named Jake in my ****Jake Runnel Series**** of stories, starting with the story**_** Zootopia: A Raccoon's Redemption **_**and currently continuing with**_** Zootopia: A Raccoon's Return. **_

**Stone Kole as Finn's son is from my Stone Kole series of stories, starting with ****_Zootopia: Stone Kole in Hang Ten!_**

**Additional Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with the movie ****_Time Bandits_****, which is a creation of** **Terry Gilliam**** & ****Michael Palin****. Its inclusion in this story is strictly for the entertainment of the readers and serves no profitable purposes. **


	7. The Sands are Alive

**Chapter 7: The Sands are Alive**

* * *

**"Time never dies. It just changes dimensions."  
Khalid Masood**

**Metron appears and things begin to get worse. **

* * *

The hospital was on full lockdown and so was Judy, she had been shoved into a room with the white-furred arctic vixen in the black suit. Two large, heavily armed, rams stood guard at the locked doorway.

The vixen looked surprised as she reached up and adjusted the radio's earpiece in her right ear. The rabbit didn't have her radio, but her long ears were erect as she tried to listen to some of what was being reported.

Staining to hear, Judy's nose began twitching in frustration at what she was hearing. Finally, she blurted out, "Did whoever you were listening to just say there are ducks with swords downtown?"

The fox gave her a frown. "You rabbits and your ears, your almost as bad as he is with hearing things you should hear," she huffed out in anger as she pulled out the earpiece and reached for her radio. Finally, she turned up the radio's volume so they both could listen to what was being said.

"Dispatch…" the radio crackled. Judy recognized the voice as that of Fangmeyer and she sounded concerned. "We need back-up!"

"SWAT is on the way," Clawhauser's voice answered. "Are they real ducks?"

"The damned biggest muscle-bound quackers I've ever seen!" the tigress yelled. The was an audible thunk and the big cat began cursing. Judy could swear she heard quacking in the background.

"Fangmeyer are you okay!" Clawhauser desperately called out.

"I'm fine, but a damn duck just drove a very large battleax into the cruiser's hood!" Fangmeyer snarled. "I going to taser his feathered ass for that!"

"Security Code Red!" a voice called over the hospital's loudspeaker.

Metron bounced around in the chair he occupied as the temporal time storm-ravaged both space and time. There was already a tear in the space-time continuum, spilling one reality into another. The being in the chair wasn't really a god, he was something else, he was a dispassionate seeker of knowledge and that all he sought. The Mobius chair whisked him through one reality after another and he watched with detached scientific curiosity as he saw the beings of one world devoured by robotic creatures. In another, a dimension collided with another, destroying all before him.

The chair shook again as it bounced into what appeared to be a primitive hospital room, his eyes raised slightly when he realized that he had metamorphosed and adapted for this reality. Where once his place pink hand clasped the chair's control, there was now pitch black fur. He held them up in curiosity and then realized he had a tail, he wasn't expecting that.

There was a curse and he looked down from his floating chair to see a white canid animal in black clothing aiming a weapon at him. "Vulpes lagopus but anthropomorphic but in nature, interesting," he simply stated as he first looked her over and then ignored her. His eyes locked onto Judy. "Oryctolagus cuniculus with traits of Lepus europaeus, fascinating!"

"Freeze!" Skye snapped as she aimed at what appeared to be a black-furred wolf in a floating chair. She hit her radio. "Code red in Hopps room!"

The being known as Metron looked back at the vixen. "You are no concern of mine," he simply said in what could be considered an arrogant tone. "I have come for her!"

"Me?" Judy exclaimed in surprise. She was holding the only weapon she could find, slightly oversized and very heavy stool.

"Yes you, Judy Hoops," the wolf calmly answered. "You must come with me to stop this. All of time and reality are unraveling and you are our only hope in stopping him."

"Who?" Judy asked.

"Your son, Aeon the new god of time," he replied.

"She's not going anywhere!" Skye growled, just as the door burst open and the ram's entered with their guns aimed at the wolf. "Get off that thing with your paws in the air, you're under arrest!"

Metron gave her an aggravated look before he reached down and grabbed Judy by her ears. The rabbit protested and cursed in pain, even as the rams opened fire with their assault rifles. Their rounds just seemed to bounce off of something invisible around the chair. Before their very eyes, the wolf in the chair and the rabbit he had seized had disappeared.

* * *

All of what he was came pouring back into his memories, Ricky was part of him but he was more than that, he was Aeon and he was pissed!

"Ricky…" Nick called out as he reached for the fox rabbit hybrid, who was crackling with what appeared to be temporal lighting. "What is happening?"

Aeon did not answer his father as he continued to curse into the darkness. He didn't even realize one of the temporal arcs had hit Nick and the fox just simply disappeared.

Nick found himself muzzle first in a pile of soft tannish gray sand, he sat up and shook his head. The sky above him was blue and cloudless, with the hot sun beating down upon him. He smelled something burning in the near distance and looked to see black smoke wafting in the sky behind him. His ears flicked at the sound of something scurrying in the sand and he looked down at the ground in front of him, he gave a yip when he saw them. Thousands of reddish scorpions were surging towards him. "Shit!" he yelled as he stood up and began to sprint away from the approaching creatures. He slipped in the sand and desperately crawled up towards the top of what was a sand dune, trying to make some distance from the scorpions behind him. As he topped the ridge, he saw a huge tan colored tank with several of those "humans" standing on it and also a small gray uniformed fennec fox. Behind them, he saw the still-smoldering ruins of four smaller tanks.

"This way," one of the humans in what looked like tan and brown color splotched combat fatigues called out as he waved at the red fox.

Nick ran down the sand and towards the large tank. He felt the large human's paw reach down and pull him onto the vehicle. "Everyone inside!" the human yelled as the scorpions drew closer. "Button up everything!"

The four humans huddled and stared at the two foxes as they all sat in the tight confines of the M1A1 tank and they could hear the insects climbing onto the vehicle. "Won't they get inside?" the small fox finally asked in fear.

"No, this thing is airtight and designed for NBC conditions," one of the humans answered. "But it's going to get warm in here if we don't crank up and pump some air from the turbine engine to blow into the crew compartment.

"Just who the hell are your two, where are we, and what are those things?" another of the humans asked in a commanding voice. He held a large pistol in his hand. "You two need to talk now!"

"Wait! Wait!" Nick barked out. "Just put the gun away!"

"Does anyone else think this is weird that we have two talking foxes in here with us?" another soldier mumbled, his skin was darker than the others. "Talking foxes who are wearing uniforms and walking around on two feet."

"Weird isn't even close, Leroy" another of the humans snapped as he stared wide-eyed at the foxes. "Do you think the Iraqis used some kind of chemical warfare and we are all tripping?"

"I doubt it, we're all having the same trip," Leroy sighed. "This has got to be some mystical shit!"

"Zootopia Police Department," another of the humans read the insignia on Nick's blue uniform. "So, you're some kind of cop dog?"

"Officer Nick Wilde of the ZPD and I have no idea of where I'm at or what those scorpion looking things are," Nick replied. "But you are one of those humans. I ran into your kind before in a weird bunker and at that place called Woodstock."

"You were at Woodstock?" the human with the gun asked. "That was twenty years ago, you couldn't have been there." He aimed the gun at the fennec fox, "So who are you, little guy? You look like one of those German soldiers from the Second World War."

"What is a German?" the fennec fox asked. "I am with the Church's Grand Army and I would guess you are not with the Allies?"

"No we are not, is that why your tanks fired at us?" the soldier snapped as he leaned forward with the gun aimed at the small fox.

"Wait, the Church's Army!" Nick called out. "The Great War was over seventy years ago, this is 2016 and that started in 1939. Is this the Greater Sahara?"

"Yes," the small fox admitted. "But what those things out there are, I have no idea and this is 1941."

"I don't know if you count years the same way we do, we're from the year 1991," the soldier with the gun commented. "At least it is on our world."

"Woodstock," another of the humans muttered in surprise as he looked at Nick. "So my father wasn't nuts?"

There was scratching on the tank's armor and they all looked around.

"Crank it up, Leroy," the human with the gun ordered. "We need to get out of here."


	8. Of Gods & Devils

**Chapter 8: Of Gods & Devils**

* * *

"**Gods die. And when they truly die they are unmourned and unremembered. Ideas are more difficult to kill than people, but they can be killed, in the end." **

**― Neil Gaiman, ****American Gods**

**Judy finds herself among a gathering of gods and ****Tony**** watches as another's misplaced, but very fervent, faith fails him. **

* * *

**Beyond Time**

Judy clung to the chair as she and the strange wolf floated in the darkness, every instinct in her psyche was screaming to somehow run and hide from whatever she felt was out there stalking them. From within the dark, something suddenly began to materialize. At first, a pair of large fierce green eyes glared down upon them and then the boney white canines of a massive wolf appeared. The rabbit let out a primal whimper of one doomed.

"Fenrisúlfr," the strange and much smaller wolf in the chair next to her addressed the creature that loomed above them. "You have broken the chains which bound you, so does this mean that Ragnarök is upon us?"

A voice answered for the larger wolf god, "Doomsday does await us all if we do not stop this new god." Judy watched as a much smaller white fox appeared by the enormous front paw of the other god. "They say that I am a deceiver, but you are not what you seem?" he commented as he wagged his nine fluffy tails behind him. "Please reveal your true self to us or my big friend here will eat you both, it is written that he can swallow a sun."

Matron shrugged and leaned forward before he answered, "I am what the Mobius Chair wishes me to be and I cannot change that."

The fox looked nonplused as he first gave them a smirk which would have made Nick proud and then waved his paw towards the darkness. The inky black faded around them to reveal a lush jungle and in the midst of clearing were all sorts of animals huddled around a huge fire. "We animal gods have gathered to consider how to stop this creature who threatens us all," the fox said to her. "He is, after all, one of our kind."

Judy looked in disbelief at all the creatures who were staring back at her. A large bull the size of the black wolf god sat there with huge long horns protruding from his head, she recognized that the creature was an ancient auroch. A being she knew was the jackal god Anubis sat near the bull. Many of the creatures were arguing with each other but had stopped when the large wolf, the nine-tailed fox, and the chair containing the smaller wolf and rabbit appeared before them.

An owl flew to land on the horns of the auroch as it peered down at the newcomers. "So Kitsune has arrived and has brought us a snack!" she called out to the others. Many of the gods chuckled at her words, all but the small hare god Manabozho, who frowned at the owl.

The fox named Kitsune stopped and appeared nonplus as he groomed his left front paw before answering the owl god, "Arianrhod, you can eat her if you would like, but she may be our last hope."

"We sit here and wait, while the sky-gods argue how to stop this vile abomination and you make jokes?" a creature of some kind yelled as he shook his staff.

"The Monkey King is right," Arianrhod added as she spread her snowy white wings. "We must wage war against this new god and restore balance to all creation."

"So where is the Creator?" a small golden armored mouse squeaked out in agitation. "There has been no sign of him since this began."

"The Creator does what she pleases," a silvery furred deer buck answered as he shook his antlers. "Mayhap this is a test for the sky gods or even for us lesser gods?"

"Why us?" a white-furred she-bear growled as she smoothed down her ice-blue gown. "Do you know something messenger that you need to share with us all?"

"Alas my dear Atali, I know nothing more than what your father Ymir already knows," the stag sighed. "I just wondered since the new god is some kind of animal, if the One Who Above All is leaving us to save creation this time?"

"Better us than another flood," Anubis commented.

Fenrisúlfr's ears stood straight up as he seemed to be listening to something many of the others did not hear. "Come Atali, Heimdallr's Horn Resounding has been blown and the one-eyed god has summoned us, Odin is marshaling his army."

"An army, he is but one of the sky fathers!" the owl goddess cried out. "Should we not try to talk to this new god first? What of his bunny who you and Kitsune brought here to us?"

"Things are moving beyond our control now," the large wolf growled. "It is time for war."

"Then you are all doomed," the smaller wolf who was Matron finally spoke.

"Doomed?" Fenrisúlfr growled. "The armies of Æsir and Vanir march upon this god. We are mighty in numbers for even Valhalla has been emptied of its warriors to join us."

"Still you will fail," Metron calmly replied.

"Do you have a plan?" the large bull god asked as he looked down upon them. "Tell us, oh man of science, of your plan."

"Fenrisúlfr was bound by mystical chains forged by his gods," Metron began to explain.

"Only by guile did they bind me with Gleipnir!" the large wolf growled. "For their treachery, I bit off the hand of Tyr before they gagged me with a sword."

"Nevertheless, the chains are strong," Metron continued. "We need to combine them with those which bind the god Prometheus, perhaps together they will be powerful enough to bind this Aeon and his power?"

"Then we must overwhelm him and hold him down," the Monkey King called out as he looked up at the others for support.

"No, that is why he brought the rabbit," Arianrhod commented as the owl goddess fluffed up her wings from her perch upon the large bull's horn. "Is this mortal his mother?"

"I can't be, Judy protested. "I'm a virgin!"

"Many a god has been born by virgins," Kitsune replied. "Or so the legends tell us."

* * *

**Nottingham: 1215**

The tyrannosaurs rex reared its massive head in anger and frustration as he tried to tear apart the remains of the king's knights he had killed. Blood dripped from its jaws, but the chain mail they wore caught in his sharp teeth and he shook the bodies in an attempt to free them of the silvery covers.

Hiding in the woods, the red fox and his companions watched in awe at the carnage in the field beyond. The king and his army had fled in panic towards the castle at Nottingham. On the field, beyond their hiding place, they watched and were surprised when there was a cry of anger as a tall stately red deer dressed in a priest's black robes approached the dinosaur. Several other monks were cowering behind their tall companion as if he could protect them with his wooden brass tipped crosier which he brandished like a spear. The tall priest screamed out curses at the beast, calling it a spawn of the unclean devil and ordering it back to hell.

"We must stop him!" one of the rangers whispered as he drew an arrow. "The dragon will slay them."

The sheriff reached over and put a large paw on the small rabbit's arm. "Nay, there is nothing we can do."

The dinosaur tilted its head in confusion as it looked down at the brave priest and the monks.

"Fie, be gone unclean one!" the priest commanded. "I compel thee to leave this holy land!"

For a moment, it seemed like the beast was considering the words. Then its jaws opened and snapped forward to bite the priest in half. With a toss of its head, it swallowed the remains of the bloody deer down and then turned its attention to his companions. One by one it chased them down and ate the screaming and crying monks, mercifully for those who helplessly watched, it was quickly over.

"So much for the power of the Church," the Sheriff sadly sighed. "It seems that even the gods have abandoned us to our own devices."

"Rob, we're gonna need a bigger bow!" Little John muttered in awe. "Our little arrows, spears, and swords are useless against that thing."

The fox sat back and pondered the bear's words before he loudly exclaimed. "Then we shalt build a large bow! Come, my dear companions, art we not children of the forest and so surely we can build such a bow as to slay yon dragon and avenge such brave holy ones!"

"Hey Rob, lower your voice!" the bear whispered, but he was too late for the large beast turned its head towards the woods and sniffed the air. Tony could swear that the dinosaur's beady black eyes glared at him as if with primal unsatisfied hunger. It turned and began to charge towards them in the woods.

"Here we go again!" Little John cried out as he ambled back towards the deep woods. "Run!"

The great beast followed them into the woods and chased them back into the thorny brambles and dense trees before it abandoned its pursuit and turned to leave. "Where do you think that it is now going?" one of the rabbits asked as he stood there with his ears erect and his nose twitching.

"Probably looking for water, something to drink," the sheriff panted out an answer. "I'm sure that his thirst is almost as great as mine." Turning towards the fox in his green tunic, the large chainmail clad wolf gave a grin. "Surely the great and noble Robin Hood has some mead or wine hidden around here someplace?"

"Fie good sir, do I look like the kind of fox who would avoid the king's taxes? Robin mockingly asked in feigned innocence. "Surely I would not hide such from this shire's good sheriff!"

The wolf just rolled his eyes and laughed. "I've known thee too long Robin and if you have done only half of some of the stories I have been told, I would be a fool indeed."

Tony could see that Little John was biting his tongue to keep himself from saying something in reply to the Sheriff's comments. The others were looking around in amusement, all trying to also stay quiet.

"Since we art brothers in this endeavor, I'm sure that my friends can find a jug or two of refreshments!" Robin gaily laughed as he stood there with his fists to his sides and his tail wagging.

"Good, because Little John is right and we are going to need a much bigger bow," the Sheriff said in all seriousness. "Have you ever heard of a ballista? A very long time ago, the Legionnaires used them in war."

"A large mobile siege crossbow," Tony answered as he looked towards the tall trees around them. "The crank mechanism will be the hardest parts to make without a forge and steel."

"Do you know how to build one?" the wolf asked in surprise. "Such knowledge has surely been lost over the many ages upon this island."

"He's not from around here," Little John simply commented.

"I've studied the basics of Roman warfare and their weapons," the human answered, not telling them he did so in a history of early European warfare class.

"Who or what is a Roman?" Robin asked.

"Our word for the legionnaires," Tony answered.

"Then thou shalt be our Master of Arms!" Robin proclaimed. "Let us build such a weapon and slay yon dragon."

"Maybe several of them, just in case our first shot misses," the Sheriff added. "But first, where are those jugs you promised for I am parched?"

"So be it!" the fox enthusiastically called out as he waved his arms to his followers. "Mead and wine first and then…"

"We all need that drink Rob, so quit with all your yapping!" Little John interjected. "We have some large bows to build."

"They're called ballista," Tony said.

"Yeah, those too!" the bear agreed as he grabbed up the large jug which two rabbits had brought to him. "Killing dragons seems like hard work."

* * *

**Fenrisúlfr or ****Fenrir is the great wolf of Norse legends. He is the son of the god Loki and the giantess Angrboða and during Ragnarök he kills Odin before he is slain by ****Odin's son Víðarr. He was tricked by the gods to be bound with the mystical chain called ****Gleipnir, the legend also says he swallows both the sun and the moon when he gets free.  
**

**The Kitsune are Japanese fox spirits and they can be considered tricksters, having the powers of a shapeshifter. Perhaps that is why he recognizes the Metron is not really a wolf? **

** Anubis is one of the ancient Egyptian gods of death. **

**Arianrhod is a Welsh/Celtic goddess who can shapeshift into a large owl and she can see even into the darkness of a mortal's very soul.**

**The Monkey King or Sun Wukong is a Chinese legendary character who is featured in the timeless novel _Journey to the West._**

**Atali is the mystical daughter of the ice giant Ymir and she can be found in Robert E. Howard's story _The Frost-Giant's Daughter_, featuring a young Conan. **

**Manabozho is based on the spirit hero of Ojibwe tradition. **

**The silvery furred deer buck god is inspired by Hittite mythology.**

**Why not a ****golden armored mouse god?**

**The auroch is the ancestor of modern domesticated cattle, the last one was killed in the early 1600s. **


	9. A God of Chaos

**Chapter 9: A God of Chaos**

* * *

"**Life is going forth; death is returning home."**

**Lao-Tzu**

**Nick is held within the large tank as they battle more of the scorpions. A god must make a decision that will have grave consequences for our hero. **

* * *

**Western Desert 1942**

Nick was shoved down next to the small fennec fox in the gray uniform near the feet of one of the humans. The inside of the tank was tight, but from the way the smaller fox was gaping, Nick figured it was far more advanced than the fennec fox had ever seen before. The tank's commander sat higher up on a platform where he could see out of a set of small slat windows, Nick knew his name was Sam. Below him was a human known as Terry and the human who was now holding the gun towards him was known simply as Matterson. Leroy must have been the driver, for he slipped into a separate small almost prone area of the tank.

The sounds of tiny legs scrapped outside as the small red scorpions engulfed the tank. After a short while, it became quiet. "Crank her up and let's get out of here!" Sam called into his helmet's intercom.

"Which way boss?" Terry asked as the tank began to rumble through the sand and stones.

The human above gave out a small curse as he peered around. Finally, he gave a curse as he carefully opened the hatch and after seeing it was scorpion free, he pulled himself up so he could better look around. "There are some trucks to the west of us!" he called out. "They don't seem to be moving but are sitting idle. Are those friends of yours Hans?"

The small fennec fox's name really wasn't Hans, but since none of the humans could pronounce his true name, they had nicknamed him that instead. "That would be our supply column," the small fox grudgingly answered.

"Then we go east!" the commander called out. Sam peered through his binoculars at the vehicles and then he saw something strange. There was a truck turned over in the sand and beside it looked like several red-stained white rocks. Overhead in the clear blue sky, vultures circled as if looking for something to eat and yet afraid to land. "Cancel that Leroy, we turn west." Even as he spoke, he loaded the large machine gun next to him with a belt of rounds and pulled back the bolt. "Head us towards those trucks."

"It might be a trap!" Leroy called back.

"Matterson, get that little guy up here!" Sam ordered. The human picked up the small fox and handed him to the tank's commander who set him on top of the turret. "How many soldiers are in this column?"

"About two hundred, why?"

"Why don't we see any of them around here, are they all as little as you are?"

"No, they should…" the fennec fox's answer trailed off as they drew closer to the overturned truck. "By all that is sacred, those are not stones but bones! They have stripped them clean of their fur and flesh."

More and more blood-stained bones appeared around the trucks and they could see the tracks left by the horde of scorpions that had passed by earlier. "They ate them alive," Sam softly said.

Two tanks similar to the ones who they had destroyed earlier were sitting on the road not moving with their gun aimed the wrong direction. "Our tanks are not sealed as well as this one," Hans sadly observed. "They must have gotten inside."

"Hey boss!" a call came over the intercom from Leroy. "Can the little guy tell us if their tanks use gas or diesel?"

Hans overheard the question and his large ears flicked. "We use petrol, why?"

"Gas," Sam relayed the answer. "Why?"

"We're burning up fuel and have only less than half of a tank left, you know how this beast loves to drink?" Leroy answered. "We can refill from one of those tankers."

"You think the fuel quality is good enough?" Sam called back.

"This puppy was made to drink anything you can feed her, even kerosene if needed," Leroy answered. "So whatever they are using, we should be able to burn it."

There was a strange sound, an odd rumbling or shuffling coming from beyond the empty trucks and something began moving in the sands behind the vehicles. A huge red scorpion crawled out of a pit it had dug and the unworldly beast was at least twice the size of the tank. "Christ, we've found the mother of all those crawling bastards!" Sam yelled.

The creature reared up with its pinchers clicking even as another horde of the small red scorpions billowed out from the pit below. Sam swung the large machine gun around and fired a burst into the large scorpion, which seemed to just shrug off the fifty caliber rounds. "Matterson, HEAT round! We need to drop whatever the hell that is!" he cried out.

"We already have a sabot round in the breach!" Terry radioed back.

"Just fire damn it!" the tank commander desperately yelled.

Nick felt the tank shake as its powerful cannon roared. "Holy shit!" Terry called out. "It punched a hole straight through that thing's head!" The spent casing fell to the floor under the fox.

On top of the turret, Hans watched as the solid depleted uranium armor round, nicknamed by the American tank crews as the "Silver Bullet", hit the large scorpion between its beady black eyes and he could momentary see though it before a green goo began to flow from the wound. The creature gave a scream as it shook and thrashed in pain. "Reload, HEAT round!" Sam commanded from next to him.

Matterson shoved Nick further down onto the bottom of the tank and ignored the fox's yipping when he stepped on the reddish-orange tail as he grabbed the next round from its cradle. He shoved the new round into the gun, before slamming the breach closed. "Loaded and locked!"

In its blind pain, the huge creature rose up and the HEAT round caught it in the chest, it burst into a green shower of the green thick goo when the round detonated. Even as it died, its progeny scurried across the sands and under the trucks between them and the tank. Sam brought his gun down and riddled the two fuel trucks with round after round, puncturing the tanks with the large bullets before the tracer rounds caught the spewing fuel ablaze. The liquidy flames spilled down upon the small scorpions and they died engulfed in a fiery infernal.

They salvaged what fuel they could from the vehicles, strapping jerry cans onto the tank's baskets. Within a few hours, the tank rumbled down the broken stone road southward and away from the scorpions of death. It was late afternoon when they found shelter near an old well, standing above it were the ruined remains of what appeared to be an ancient temple upon a ridge overlooking the small depression. "That is Set's Well," Hans said. "The water is both clean and sweet. You can send a crewmammal to watch the desert for miles around from the walls of the old temple."

"Terry, take us up the ridge, behind that old wall. I don't want to get caught down here," Sam commanded. He looked over towards two burned-out trucks and a few plies of rocks marking makeshift graves nearby. "What happened here?" he asked Hans.

"A skirmish between our soldiers and some of the allied raiders, nothing major," the small fox sighed. "Still enough have died for what amounts to nothing but another chunk of the desert. Animals have warred over this water for centuries, those warriors are now gone or are buried in the nearby sands but this well still remains."

The tank parked near the ruins and they pulled camouflaged netting over it to conceal it more from both the ground and air, the sun was setting in the west. "No fire, no lights," Sam commanded as he dug into a box. "MRE's for dinner boys."

Terry held up two olive drab green packets as he turned to the foxes. "You two can share an MRE, which do you want, the pork and rice or the meatballs?" he asked.

Nick looked at the smaller fox in confusion and then back towards the human before he asked. "First, what is an MRE and second, what is pork?"

"Meal Ready to Eat," Terry answered. "Each comes with an entrée, dessert, drink powder, and all sorts of goodies. They really aren't that bad, but they ain't your momma's home cooking. As for pork, it's meat from a pig. Don't tell me you've never had BBQ before?"

"You eat pigs?" the small fox exclaimed. His ears dropped down his back and he stood staring at the human in disbelief. "To eat the flesh of another animal is a sin against the gods! I have friends who are pigs!"

"Simmer down fox," Sam said as he tore his packet open. "Where we come from pigs are not so smart nor can they talk, they are just food."

"You don't eat foxes…do you?" Nick stammered out.

"No, but I did try to shoot a thieving fox trying to steal chickens back at the farm," Leroy laughed. "Missed him twice and he got away." Both foxes stared at him in disbelief.

"You eat fish?" Sam cut in. "Here is a packet with some tuna casserole. You really don't want the meatballs, trust me on that one."

Nick and Hans shared the packet of food, although they swapped the chocolate nut cake with Leroy for his applesauce. Both the foxes felt the food was too salty and the drink mix didn't taste anything like they would have called orange flavored. "This does taste better than the black bread and potato cricket stew we normally get in the field," Hans admitted.

After they finished their meal, Sam tossed them a blanket. "We're sleeping by the tank and if you two want to run off into the desert in the middle of the dark, feel free. I don't want to waste time or sleep keeping up with either or you, the war going on around here isn't our war."

Terry came and sat next to them. "Nick you said you were at Woodstock," he cautiously asked. "That can't be the Woodstock in 1969, foxes don't live more than five or so years and that was twenty years ago…at least where we come from."

Nick saw Sam approach and look down at them. "Look I was traveling with a friend and we got caught in some really weird time stuff and we landed in a place full of your kind," the fox answered. "I understood it was Woodstock, we had a similar event in my reality called Wolfstock, it also had the music and the drugs. As for my age, I'm thirty-three."

"Then my father wasn't nuts," Terry chuckled. "He said he came across a talking police fox who told him to get his act together and do something with his life."

"That must have been me," Nick admitted with a smile. "I kind of snapped at him in a rather verbal manner."

"He did what you said and started a small business," the human sighed. "He had a good life before the early Alzheimer's got him."

"What's Alzheimer's?" Nick asked.

"You slowly forget everything, including who you are and everyone you love," Terry sadly answered. "It's a sad way to live and one day die."

"The sun is now down so get some sleep," Sam ordered. "Terry, you take over the next shift from Leroy."

Just past two in the morning, the stars were shining above the well and the moon's light illuminated the darkness almost as if it was daylight. The desert god Set stared at the tank before him and the strange creatures that slept in its shadow. It was a machine of war unlike any he had encountered in all the centuries of walking these sands, but then again so were those scorpions.

The snake god walked past the sleeping creatures and saw two foxes huddled under a thin blanket. "Your kind I know," he hissed. His forked tongue tasted the scents around the two sleeping foxes. "You are a child of the desert," he said to the smaller fox. "But as for you, my little reddish-orange friend, you smell like something else. There is the faint smell of a rabbit on you and something more powerful."

Set drew back in surprise at what he smelled and the god of chaos gave a grim smile. "Anubis!" he called out towards the heavens. "Good cousin, come and see what I have found!"

Terry looked around in a start, he had been watching the desert with a pair of infrared binoculars and could have sworn he heard a faint voice, but there was no one around. Clutching his assault carbine tighter, he continued his sentry duties.

Far away in another time and space, the jackal god tilted his head when he heard his cousin's voice. Stepping away from the other animal gods, who were still arguing how to stop the new god of time, he walked away into the jungle to disappear. Moments later he reappeared in the ruins of one of his old temples, where he saw a large weapon of war parked.

"Ah, there you are, cousin!" Set hissed out with a sarcastic tone. "Look who I have found!" the serpent called out as the god stood above a slumbering red fox. "Smell him!"

"This better not be another one of your jokes!" the god of death snapped as he leaned forward and sniffed. The fox smelled like the rabbit that the false god Metron had arrived with and also that of the new god. Turning to the serpent god, he asked, "Could this be his father?"

"Perhaps, who truly knows?"

"Then we must take him to the other gods!"

"How, we don't have the power to transport him though reality?" Set protested and then he gave a sinister smile. "At least when he is in this form we can't."

"But his soul can travel," Anubis added. "He must die in this form."

"What is a mortal's body but a shell for its true self?" Set asked. "Upon his death, he will cast off this fleshy shell."

Anubis pondered what his cousin had said before he finally agreed with the serpent god. He drew his sickled shaped sword.

"Wait, cousin!" Set protested as he waved towards the ground. "Let me have some of the fun." A snake crawled from under a nearby rock and slithered across the rubble-strewn ground towards Nick's sleeping body. Raising its head, the deadly asp prepared to strike the slumbering fox with it poisonous fangs.


	10. Best Made Plans

**Chapter 10: Best Made Plans **

* * *

_"**I know him. He's a little bit in love with death. He flirts; he teases. I can wait."**_

Sheriff of Nottingham speaking about Robin Hood – _Robin & Marian_

**Judy asks questions to a couple of gods while Tony helps Robin and the Sheriff make plans to kill the "dragon".**

* * *

**Somewhere out of time **

"The all-wise and all-powerful Odin commands me to gather with his army of gods and heroes," Fenrisúlfr growled as he looked towards something beyond the distant sky. "I must go, for all of this talking is not going…"

"Then be a good little puppy and run to your master!" the Monkey King scoffed at the huge black wolf god. The outspoken primate god had balanced himself on the very tip of his staff, a simple enough trick but it did look impressive. "Was it not Odin and his family who fooled you into being bound by those chains? You owe him nothing more than contempt for what he did to you."

Judy listened while the gods argued with Metron and also each other. It seemed that each had his or her own idea of what they needed to do. Her nose twitched when she smelled the scent of a very virile male of her species and she glanced over to see that Manabozho had drawn closer to her. Although the presence of another Lepus was comforting, he was also distracting. The god was not much larger then she was and was both muscular and almost naked, he only wore a simple loincloth made from woven fibers which barely covered himself below his waist and his tannish gray fur was tattooed with strange black runes or symbols. Their eyes met and she felt herself blushing when she realized that he was staring at her. "What?" she finally asked. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's that I'm a fertility god and yet you do not seem to succumb to my presence?" Manabozho answered. His nose cutely twitched in curiosity and she could tell that he was struggling not to let his right foot paw start thumping in agitation. "I can smell your lust, but it doesn't seem to be all for me? Most does would be begging to breed with me by now."

"How typically male!" a voice laughed from above and Judy looked up to see the large white owl had been watching them from her perch on the great ox's horn. "You are more civilized and disciplined then where he comes from, he is only motivated by his testosterone-driven lust. Tell me Manabozho, just how many children have you sired by now?"

The hare god cast the owl and aggravated look, "Arianrhod is right about somethings, after all, she is very wise. But as they say, wisdom comes with age and she is centuries older than most of us," he said in a sarcastic tone to Judy. "Now as for you my dear, something besides me is vexing you and I have a feeling that it isn't that you are just coming to terms that you are somehow the mother of a god."

"It's just that you all are huddled around this fire in fear of the god that you call my son and I don't understand why?" Judy answered his question.

"Because he can't control his powers and does not seem to want to even try," the white feathered owl said.

"Has anyone just tried to talk to him?" Judy continued. "Asked him what is wrong?"

"A sky god by the name of Zeus, commanded him to stop," Manabozho sighed in fear, the hare god's ears were flat against his back. "The new god became angered and we're not sure what happened to Zeus. His army of Olympians attacked, but they were simply destroyed by being turned to aged dust."

"We are ageless, but not immortal," Arianrhod added. "Even gods can die." That did not make any sense to Judy, but Manabozho was nodding his agreement.

"What if Metron's plan doesn't work?" Judy asked again, she was staring towards the sky as if she could see the god who they said was her son. "What if the chains won't hold?"

"They must!" the white owl answered, there was fear in her wide eyes.

"I want to talk to him!" the brave rabbit suddenly said. "I am trained in police negotiating techniques, the Behavioral Change Stairway Model. The first step is to get the subject to talk and let him know he is being listened to!"

"I don't know?" Manabozho replied as he looked up towards the fire as if he was seeing something in the flames. "But Odin is not waiting for us and he is marching his army to war, we may be too late."

Arianrhod swept down from above and engulfed Judy in her wings. The hare god frowned when they both disappeared.

Judy's eyes widened in fear when she saw there was mostly darkness around her again after the owl goddess released her, but standing before her was the long-eared fox looking hybrid named Ricky and he appeared much older and angry. Bolts of white lightning shot from the god's paws and from his eyes, he was definitely out of control, as if he was having a temper tantrum. "Where are you God?" he screamed. "Come face me and do not send any more of your minions." Without even looking her way and not realizing who she was, he pointed his paw and a bolt of white light tore into them.

Judy and Arianrhod just disappeared.

* * *

**Nottingham: 1215**

Doctor Tony Newman looked in awe at the many animals around him who were chatting, drinking, and working. Rabbits, badgers, foxes, deer, mice, red squirrels, weasels, even wolves and bears. All creatures he could expect to see on the island he would have called Briton, but there were even a couple of large rhinos in their knightly armor and those he knew were not natives of this strange land. In the midst of all this collective chaos was their leader, a dashing red fox in a green tunic who merrily motivated the others and his name was Robin Hood.

Tony had sketched out his design in the dirt for three large Roman Scorpio projectile launchers, which were an oversized version of a crossbow mounted on a four-legged stand. It turned out that when it came to weapons, Robin was not the best animal to talk to but rather it was the fox's onetime mortal enemy the Sheriff of Nottingham. The large black wolf seemed to be fascinated by his design and was a self-taught expert in warfare. Although the human had to calm his nerves being so close to a huge dog-like anthropomorphic creature, it was like if a movie werewolf had come to life. "Tension must be made, so you use a…what did you call it again?" the Sheriff asked and he looked down at the crude drawing.

"A winder block and this is the winding pawl, it gives the tension needed to launch the oversized arrows we are having made," the human patiently explained. "It's a somewhat complicated weapon, but effective."

"Why don't we just make it like a large bow at the end and then use we bears and those big rhinos to pull the string back to hook it over that thingamajig back there?" Little John asked as he stared over their shoulders. "It seems that our arrow does not need to be too large, but it is the speed in which it is fired that is important. It's kind of like how Rob's longbow isn't that long to me and won't puncture any of those rhino's armor at a distance, but it pops an arrow right through it at close range.

"Then we have a plan!" the wolf growled. "To work one and all, then we will meet this dragon on the field of honor come morning! So my friends, what's for dinner?"

"Turnips and leek stew," Little John snorted in disgust. "I kept Rob away from it, back in the good old days that poor fox would start daydreaming about Marion and burn the chow every time. Old Friar Tuck, rest his merry old soul, was one of the few of us who could eat Rob's cooking. But that badger could make a meal from a stone if that's all he had and back then times were lean."

"King John's doing," the Sheriff sadly sighed. "I would have driven my sword though his black heart back then, but for a promise which I had made to King Richard."

"It would have saved us all a lot of grief," a red fox in a gaudy patched tunic interjected.

"Alan, you are here!" Little John cried out as he picked up the fox and crushed him in a hug. "I hope you brought your lute, we need music as we work. Sing that song about me and Robin walking through the forest, you know with the Oo-de-lally words in it!"

"Alan-a-Dale," Tony laughed. "I was half expecting a large rooster to appear instead of a fox."

"Why would a rooster play the lute?" the bear asked the human as he scratched the fur between his ears and looked at Tony with a look of bewilderment. "Little buddy, you must come from a really weird place!"

"You have no idea," Tony chuckled.

It took them all night and well into the next day before they finally had three of the large weapons ready, they didn't look anything like the Romans had built. Instead, they looked like large crossbows mounted on carts being pulled by bears and rhinos, but they fired true to aim and their bolts were powerful.

"We art ready!" Robin proclaimed as he stood upon a cart and joyously swept his hat from his head. "Now my dear friends it tis time to save yon fair kingdom from this dragon!"

His followers cheered, all but the Sheriff who looked over at Tony and just shook his head as he chuckled, "Robin Hood has always been a boisterous fellow, but they do love him!"

By the late afternoon, they had set their weapons into position behind a small ridge. "Now come and let's draw yon beastie to his fate!" Robin grimly said as he turned to a handful of followers. "When he doth top said ridge fire, but do not shoot any of us." The fox looked down at the large bolts which we jammed into the ground near the carts, each of the arrows was as long as he was in height.

"I'd suggest ducking then," Little John laughed as he gave his old friend a fond look. "That big head of yours might get in the way." Robin gave him a nod and then grinned as he turned to trot up the ridge.

Moments later there was a roar and Robin and his followers raced over the top of the ridge, Tony could hear the pounding steps of the Tyrannosaurus rex charging behind them. As the fox sprinted over the top, the great beast loomed above him. "I have the shot!" the Sheriff cried out and he pulled the pin to release the bolt, it wobbled slightly in the air as he flew directly towards the dinosaur.

Suddenly before the great beast, something white shimmered into view and the long bolt slammed into the back of what appeared to be a large white owl that had just appeared. Below the speared owl, a female rabbit looked up in confusion at the savage creature above her and then over at her winged companion. "Arianrhod!" she cried out. White feathers were fluttering down around her.

"Damn it!" Tony cursed as he fired his bow's bolt and it caught the large toothsome beast along its flank, the third cart fired but missed. The dinosaur cried out in pain as it fled from view over the ridge.

* * *

**My favorite "grown-up" Robin Hood movie is actually ****Robin and Marian**** made in 1976. This story starts with a much older Robin, played by the legendary Sean Connery, returning home to Sherwood Forest after years of war in the service of King Richard. There he finds that Marian, staring the talented Audrey Hepburn, has become a nun in his absence. It is a bittersweet and tragic story of an older man ****rekindling his true love and**** being caught trying to live up to his own youthful legend. ****Robert Shaw brilliantly plays the Sheriff of Nottingham and Nicol Williamson as Little John. **


	11. Babes in Arms

**Chapter 11: Babes in Arms**

* * *

**"One man's theology is another man's belly laugh."**  
\- Robert A. Heinlein

**Loki brings the magical chain to his son ****Fenrisúlfr and Set battles the strange scorpions who have invaded his desert lands. **

* * *

**Somewhere out of time **

Metron floated in the Mobius Chair as he watched and listened to the assembly of these so-called gods as they argued and debated. Then there was silence when a strange group entered the clearing, it was led a dark-haired humanoid who was very handsome in his armor, but the scientist could almost feel the malicious contempt that the stranger gave those around him. Behind the human-like god was a large green scaly serpent, with its forked tongue flicking from its fanged mouth, and standing beside that beast was a thin, gloomy looking girl who was pale in her pallor and had long stringy black hair that covered the half side of her face which seemed to be icy blue in its hue.

"Loki Laufeyjarson, slayer of Baldr the Fair!" one of the gods spit the newcomer's name out in a contemptuously manner as if it was a curse.

"Father!" the large black wolf growled out as he lowered his huge head in submission. "You have come and brought the chain Gleipnir!" At the sight of the object in the god's hands, the wolf god's ears flattened.

"That is no chain!" the Monkey King laughed when he saw what looked like a mere ribbon in the god's hands. "That thin little string is what bound you and you call yourself a god?"

"Looks can be deceiving," Loki sarcastically laughed when he saw the primate god. His body changed as he shapeshifted his form to match that of the Monkey King. "Gleipnir is made from what is impossible, the dwarves have infused it with the echo of a cat's tread, the hairs from the beard of a woman, the gnarly roots of a great mountain, the breath of a fish, the spittle of a crow, and last, but not the least, with the sinews of a bear."

"Stop that!" the Monkey King snapped at Loki. "Return to your true form!"

The trickster god just used the thin ribbon looking chain to lasso the true primate god and the Monkey King chattered in anger as he tore at the chain which now bound him.

"Come Fenrisúlfr," Loki called out to the large wolf. "I was afraid that you might have heeded Odin's call to arms, I feared that misplaced sense of loyalty that you canines seem to have would have jumbled your mind. Come and let us go watch as the new god destroys the Æsir, it will be glorious."

"No father, I cannot!" Fenrisúlfr growled out. "The new god must be stopped, for he threatens more than just the gods."

"Do you mean those fickle mortals who once knelt and prayed to us as being their gods?" Loki sarcastically asked as he threw his arms up. "They have turned us into stories to be told around their hearths or even worse, into comic book characters for their entertainment! They made me some kind of alien instead of a god in their movies and have you ever read some of their fanfiction stories about me? Many of them are sick and warped." The large snake behind the god snickered and the thin girl giggled at their father's words.

"There are others besides the humans that I care for!" the large wolf sighed out. "There are the wolves, who howl their praise of me to the moon. I must try to save them from destruction and if I fail, let them remember me not as Fenrir Lokison but as their loyal god Hróðvitnir! Sister Hel, if I fall in battle and I find my soul in your realm, please let me sometimes hear their calls on those chilly winter nights when they call to the Snow Moon."

"If you fall and I survive, I will see that it is so my brother," the thin girl sadly said. "But I fear that our father is wrong and we will all perish. Come Jörmungandr, father awaits." The large serpent briefly looked back at his brother before he slithered after his sister.

"So that was Loki?" the small mouse god in the golden armor asked as he watched the wolf's siblings disappear. "Charming, isn't he?"

"One cannot choose his family, can they?" Kitsune sarcastically said as he wagged his nine tails.

"So that was entertaining," the Monkey King grumbled as he sat down still bound in the mystical chain. "But now that we have this damned chain, does anyone happen to know where the rabbit went?"

All eyes looked toward the hare god, whose ears drooped down his back. "They left," he meekly said.

"They left?" Metron asked in agitation. "Where did she go and who took her?"

"Then we are not ready!" Fenrisúlfr desperately called out to the other animal gods. "I must go and try to stop Odin and the Æsir!" The large wolf leaped towards the woods and disappeared.

Odin's mighty army was marching upon the Rainbow Bridge, which he had magically cast so that it would carry them towards the rogue god. Hundreds of gods and goddesses, along with thousands of heroes had donned their battle armor and seized their war weapons before they marched along the mystical pathway. The one-eyed god rode his eight-legged steed, Sleipnir, at the head of the column. Sleipnir too was a child of Loki, born of the changing god, and so was also the great wolf god's half-brother. The steed drew to a halt at the sight of his brother blocking the path. "Fenrir, have you come to join us?" Odin roared out. "You took your damned time."

"No great Odin, I have come to plead with you to stop before we all are destroyed," the wolf answered as he tried to block the army's advance. "We animal gods have a plan to subdue this god of time, for he is one of us."

"The time for waiting has passed!" Thor cried out as he drove his chariot forward, his goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr stomped their hoofs in anticipation as they pulled it towards the battle. The red-bearded god dramatically leapt from his chariot and pushed past the wolf and then raising his war hammer Mjölnir, he rushed to strike the smaller fox-like god with long ears. There was a white pulse of time that engulfed not only Thor but all who stood upon the magical bridge.

"Well now here's a sight one does not see every day!" Loki laughed afterward as he waded through what was once Odin's mighty army. All around him those who were previously great gods and mighty heroes were now just mere babies sitting among their piles of clothing and next to their weapons of war.

Hel ran past her father and picked up a black wolf pup, hugging him to her bony chest and giggled when her once older and powerful brother licked her face and whimpered. Two goat kids ran past her and down the bridge.

"Shhh!" Loki called out as he picked up the eight-legged colt. "Shhh, my son your mother is here." Then turning towards the hulking serpent which had crawled behind him, he smiled. "Well, it looks like your dinner is served."

The Midgard Serpent named Jörmungandr grinned and flicked his forked tongue in anticipation as he looked down upon the helpless babies. "So many," he hissed. "So juicy!"

* * *

**Western Desert 1942**

Nick was bone tired and despite all the weird things that he had been through, he quickly fell into a sound sleep. The red fox was a child of the city and civilized, so he did not hear the slithering sound of the viper who was now coiled up and ready to strike. The fennec fox next to him was not as civilized and was a child of the same desert that surrounded him. His ears flicked at the soft sound of the snake as it slithered across the rubble-strewn sand, his brown eyes came open and he saw the serpent ready to strike the fox next to him. With a speed that only his species can muster, the fennec fox reached out and grasped the viper even as it struck, his paw seizing the deadly snake behind its head and he struggled as it coiled and uncoiled in an effort to free itself from the small fox's grip. Opening his jaws, the fox nicknamed Hans leaned in to give the snake a traditional deadly bite with his sharp teeth.

"Stop!" a voice called out from the darkness as a shape began to take form before the fox's wide eyes.

"Holy Set!" Hans cried out as he knelt and bowed with his head touching the sand. He still maintained his hold on the snake.

Standing on the remains of the temple wall, Terry gave a cry of warning to his comrades when he saw a snake-headed creature standing there and then suddenly a jackal appeared beside the stranger. "Stop!" he yelled as he gave a warning shot from his assault carbine. The jackal god just threw him an amused look. "Hands or paws where I can see them!"

Sam sat up and quickly drew his pistol, aiming it at the snake god. "Just who are you two and what do you want?' he commanded. He was confused at what he saw was going on by the tank, Nick was sitting up and looking at the two strange creatures in awe, the small fox Hans was groveling in the sand.

"They are gods!" The small fox cried out in fear.

"Now my little child and please let me have my snake back," Set lovingly chuckled as he leaned over and plucked the serpent from the small fox's paw. Standing up he looked over at Anubis and shrugged his shoulders. "Well cousin, it looks like it's your turn to use your sword…"

The god of death, however, was looking elsewhere with his ears standing straight up. "The red devils have killed a village," he growled out. "I can hear the cries of despair from the souls of the innocents who have perished while the await me to join the goddess Maat, the keeper of the law, at the Great Scales to weigh their hearts. Only those whose hearts have been lightened by their good deeds may pass to blessed Aaru and dwell in that paradise for eternity."

Set too looked towards the distant desert, "There are those praying in my temple, asking me to save them from those odd scorpions. It is time that I put an end to this!" A wind picked up with a gale force, causing the humans and foxes to shield their eyes from the swirling sand and inside the column of whirling sand, the god disappeared.

"Where did he go?" Sam asked in confusion as he once again aimed his pistol at the jackal god still standing there.

"Set has gone to war with the red scorpions which are plaguing this land," the god simply answered.

Set landed before the temple and he saw that all sorts of desert animals were huddled inside. Before him, there was a swarm of the red scorpions and they didn't hesitate at the sight of the god, who frowned because he should have control over the creatures but did not. "So if it is an invading army I must destroy, I will need an army of my own," he said as he knelt in the sand. "Come forth my children."

From the sand crawled out what appeared to look like hundreds of ten-legged spiders, but they were not true spiders, the were solifugids. The so-called "camel spiders" were four to six inches long and scurried towards the advancing scorpions. The sands became embroiled as the two groups of creatures battled each other, but the scorpions had met their match and they seemed to have been halted.

As the god watched the battle, he felt more than heard, something large treading upon the sands. Raising himself upon a column of solidified red sand, he saw in the distance a huge red scorpion moving towards the battle below. Set willed the column to move him until he faced the huge beast, which dwarfed him. The god of the desert faced down the massive intruder within his realm. "I command you to leave!" he hissed out in anger.

The scorpion stuck out with its tail stinger, striking at the snake god. Just in time Set commanded a shield made from the sand to block the deadly strike. Sand flew as the shield shattered, but the god created yet another one as the tail struck yet again. "SO BE IT!" the god roared.

The poisonous tip of the tail stuck forward, shattering the shield of sand that the god had summoned. His right hand stretched out and more sand swirled upwards, forming a stony spear which he threw towards his assailant. A heavy plated claw blocked the spear, shattering it and even as it crumbled into pieces, the tail struck out yet again. Set's hastily formed shield bust and the scorpion's stinger just missed the god but knocked him from his sandy column and he fell onto the ground below the great beast.

Large pinchers tried to seize the desert god, who leaped back and away from them as he once again summoned the sands into a shield and a spear. He stuck yet again, but the solid stony spear shattered without injuring the beast. Lifting his arms, Set strained as he parted the desert sands below the scorpion. As his enemy toppled into the hole, he brought his fists closed and the sand crashed onto the great beast, finally crushing it into green gooey pulp.

The victorious god looked back at where his camel spiders had battled the small red scorpions and frowned at all the bodies which littered the ground, he had won the battle but the losses had been great.

* * *

**Hróðvitnir is yet another name for Fenrisúlfr or Fenrir and the name means "fame-wolf". **

**The old stories have Loki's father as ****Fárbauti (Cruel Striker) and his mother being Laufey. ****Marvel/Disney has turned him into being Loki Laufeyson, the adopted brother of Thor Odinson. He kills his own father Laufey in the first movie **_**Thor** _**and tries to destroy his own homeworld ****Jötunheimr****. **

**The shapeshifting god of chaos Loki is the father of Fenrir, Hel, and ****Jörmungandr. He turned himself into a mare to seduce the stallion Svadilfari in an effort to keep him from finishing the great wall around ****Asgard**** and by doing so he becomes the mother of ****Sleipnir. He also had two sons ****Nari and Vali, the gods turned Vali into a savage wolf who killed his brother Nari. His son Nari's entrails were then used to bind Loki to three great stones where he suffered terrible punishment, for causing the death of Baldr, by having a serpent's torturous** **venom drip upon him. **

**Solifugids are a unique spider-like creature of the desert, often called the camel spider by American troops who served in Iraq. They do prey upon scorpions as a food source. **


	12. Dungeons & Dragons

**Chapter 12: Dungeons & Dragons**

* * *

"**Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."**

— Philip K. Dick

**A goddess dies and Judy meets a human time traveler. In Nottingham, Marian is in the clutches of the cruel King John.**

* * *

**Nottingham: 1215**

In another reality, the large wounded Tyrannosaurus-rex would ultimately be named Sue long after her life had ended and she would die in her twenty-eighth year in a stream. Her body would be covered by mud, which would hide her fossilized remains until she was found by an intrepid team of explorers and fossil collectors led by Sue Hendrickson. In that reality, her reassembled skeleton would greet young and old to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago as a reminder of a long-gone time in history. But for now, she would lay by another river both bleeding and afraid.

She lifted her head and looked around at the trees and grasses, everything around her was strange and she was hungry. There was none of the large prey she was used to hunting or scavenging a meal from their dead carcasses here in this odd place where she now found herself. The dinosaur was also cold and longed for the hot and humid bayou which was her hunting grounds. The sharp-pointed object which had struck her caused great pain on her side and little did she know it had broken one of her large ribs. With a huff, she sadly laid her massive head down on the soft grass and rested, hungry and lost. Something white floated from the sky and landed on his muzzle, she tried to focus her eyes on the feather that had landed there and shake it off, but it stayed.

Miles away from where Sue laid, Judy stroked the large dying owl's head as the goddess stared towards the sky above. "Oh dear, that didn't go as planned," the owl groaned in pain. "As I said my little one, we are ageless, but not…" She never finished what she was saying before she seemed to dissolve into a pile of snowy white feathers, which the wind blew across the nearby field and joined those already afloat in the midsummer's breeze.

"What twas she?" a kindly voice asked and the rabbit looked up to see a handsome fox in a green tunic standing there holding his strange cap clasped in his paws near his heart as a show of respect for the slain.

"She was a goddess named Arianrhod," Judy softly answered. "We were trying to save time and space together, now she is dead and I am lost." She hesitated as she picked up a large feather and held it to her chest, her nose twitched in surprise when she saw the human. Standing, she stared at the strange being and asked with a faint hope in her voice's tone, "Are you a god too?"

"I am nothing but a traveler," Tony answered. "Lost just like you, but what were you saying about time and space?"

"There is a cosmic god who has gone rogue and is damaging all of reality and time," the rabbit replied as she looked at all the animals who had gathered around her. "In some ways it may be my fault, for the other gods say I am his mother."

Tony only nodded as he two looked at the others, who were gasping at what they had seen and now heard. "Does this god look like a fox with long ears?" he finally asked.

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Because I'm a scientist and I was with my partner testing Project Tic-Toc, a time machine. We went someplace what wasn't our past, but found ourselves in a meadow, there was a small tent and when we looked inside we saw a long-eared fox with a vixen. He shot white light at us from his eyes and I found myself here in another reality."

"So you lied," Little John growled. "You're not traveler from across the seas?" The large bear held his staff ready to thump the human.

"I am, but not from across the seas that you might know of," the human quickly answered. "However, I am from another place where we humans are the dominant species and you bears and foxes walk on four legs and are more primal."

"Well if you are from heaven or hell, it doesn't matter right now because we still have that dragon out there and we need to withdraw to safety in the forest!" a black wolf wearing armor interjected. "We need to regroup, for an injured creature like that is more dangerous than before."

"Aye, the good Sheriff is right!" the fox said as he nodded. "Come let us haul our big arrow shooters back into Sherwood Forest and decide what to do one we are there!"

"Are you Robin Hood?" Judy finally asked. He looked almost like the cartoon books she had read as a child.

"Aye that I am mistress," the fox answered with a bow as he swept his hat from his head. "So come hither to safety and to a warm fire, there we shall share a jug of wine while you tell us more about these gods."

"Robin," a voice called and another fox approached. "Skippy and Tagalong want to take some of their sons and track down the dragon…"

"Nick?" Judy suddenly asked. The fox standing before her in the gaudy, well-worn tunic looked just like her partner and best friend.

"Nay my lady," the fox answered. "I am Alan, Alan-a-Dale, just a poor wandering minstrel."

"You look and sound almost like someone I know," the rabbit continued.

"Come on Robin," the wolf called out. "We can talk where it is safe."

Still grasping one of Arianrhod's white feathers, Judy followed the human into the thick woods ahead.

Miles from the so-called dragon and the rebels in Sherwood Forest, a thin lion rubbed his chin as he leered down at a vixen in a black and white habit. "So my dear Marian, it has been years since we last saw each other," King John chuckled as before he picked up an emerald encrusted chalice of red wine. "Now tell me, my dear, where is your husband Robin Hood?"

"Your highness," the still beautiful vixen bowed as she replied. "After my former husband ran off to join good King Richard's army, I forsook our marriage vows and became a daughter of the church. What my that tod is doing is no longer a concern..."

"Shut up!" the lion roared. "I know how much you two loved each other all those years ago, that fox even risked his life to impress you by winning the golden arrow and setting off the trap I had planned. I should have beheaded him right away and not listened to your stupid pleas."

What the lion didn't say was that he only released Robin because Little John was disguised as a noble bear named Sir Reginald, the Duke of Chutney, and he had gotten close enough to threaten the prince with a knife. Robin and his merry followers had won the day and Marian had fled with the tod into the leafy maze of Sherwood Forest where she became his lover. There they hid, causing mischief and aggravation as they upset many of Prince John's schemes to overthrow his brother Richard while the king was overseas on the Great Crusade.

After Prince John left Nottingham and returned back to his own lands, the Sheriff of Nottingham was charged with bringing in this Robert of Loxley, nicknamed Robin Hood, to justice. Not impressed with the Sheriff's lackluster attempts to capture or kill the outlaw, John sent one of his trusted followers Sir Guy of Gisborne, who was another red fox, to kill Robin. After slaying Sir Guy, Robin disguised himself as the knight and freed his friend Little John from the Sheriff's dungeon. Marian had suspected that the Sheriff was not too enthusiastic in stopping Robin and his followers, that the wolf's loyalty had always remained with King Richard.

When King Richard returned, he had banished his brother and his followers. But Richard was not a peaceful king and soon he led his army across the sea again to do battle, this time forcing Robin to join him. Now Richard was dead and without an heir, his brother John sat upon the crown. But King John was vain and cruel, soon his own barons objected to his demands and now he faced a rebellion by many of his kingdom's nobility. He was here at Nottingham because the Sheriff had openly spoken in support of those barons.

"That was a long time ago, my king," the vixen sighed. "I was but a foolish girl in love with a dashing legend. The great bandit who stole from the rich and gave to the poor, what did that infatuation leave me but a broken heart?"

"No my good vixen, I cannot believe that Robin Hood would dare leave you in my merciful paws again," King John snapped in agitation. There was a chopping sound and Marian looked out of the castle's window to see that another of the villagers had lost his head to the king's executioner's sharp ax. Wailing from the victim's wife and children could be heard inside where she stood. The vixen looked disapprovingly at the king and saw he was smiling as he listened to the cries. "Yes, but my mercy only goes so far my dear."

Marian winced yet again when she heard more crying and another chop.

"Your majesty," a voice called out from the other end of the room and a sinister-looking gray furred stallion in black armor entered. He dropped to his knees before the lion and bowed. "Our scouts say the dragon is down by the river, should I muster the army to attack it?"

"Why?" King John asked as he looked down at the knight. "Sir Hoofler, can't you see that we are safe behind this castle's stout stone walls? Let Robin Hood and that traitorous sheriff deal with the beast. Now take this vixen down to the dungeon where she can spend time with the Sheriff's wife and his daughter."

Sir Hoofler stood up and grasped Marian's arm, but as he began to pull her out of the room, the king called out, "Wait…maybe we can use her as bait! Strip her and the Sheriff's daughter and then hang them from iron cages before the castle's walls. That should draw him out!"

"You want to draw the dragon to the castle walls?" the knight asked in confusion.

"No you idiot, it will draw out both Robin Hood and that treasonous Sheriff," King John laughed in a sinister manner. "And when they come to save the ones they love, which they will do, then either we will get them or the dragon will."

"But your majesty, she is a nun and the Sheriff's daughter is but a child!" Sir Hoofler objected. "Surely to treat them so will incur the wrath of the Church itself?"

"As long as the bishop gets his tithes, he won't care about some mere females," the lion answered with a flick of his emerald rings covered paw. "Now do as I say or else!" As if to reinforce his threat, there was another chopping sound and the sad sounds of sobs from outside.

"As you command," the knight gulped.

Hours later Marian listened to the steed as he read the king's proclamation. She huddled inside of the small cage fashioned from steel bars and wood which hung high off the castle's walls near the stout drawbridge so that all could see her shame as they entered the castle. On the other side of the bridge, the Sheriff of Nottingham's twelve-year-old daughter Margaret was suspended in a similar cage.

It turned out that Sir Hoofler feared the damnation of his soul more than the removal of his head, for although he did as his king commanded and had them stripped naked, he also gave them each a heavy wool tartan blanket so they could cover themselves. Of those villagers who listened while the steed read the king's proclamation, none objected but only looked sadly up at the two females hanging there in the late afternoon sun. Anyone who would have dared to speak out in their defense was now either beheaded or with the Sheriff in the distant woods. "Robin will come and save them," she heard someone say. But Marian prayed that the Robin would not come for it would take more than a fox's guile to escape this trap.

The vixen's ears flicked when she heard sobbing from the cage nearby and she looked over at the young she-wolf. "I want my daddy!" Margaret whimpered. "I want my mommy!"

"Have faith, Margaret!" Marian called over to her. "The gods will show us mercy even if the king does not." Silently she began to pray, just as something fluttered by her and she quickly reached out to grab a large white feather which was floating on the breeze. With curiosity, she held the strange feather to her chest and wondered what kind of bird it could have come from? Was it a sign from the gods, perhaps even a feather from an angel's wing?

The vixen looked in concern when she heard a distant roar and watched as the villagers all hurried toward safety, for the evening was descending and the mighty dragon was on the prowl.

* * *

**Sue Hendrickson really did find the bones of the T-Rex who would be named Sue in her honor and her or his skeleton is found at Chicago's ****Field Museum of Natural History.**

**Hanging female prisoners in cages was not an uncommon practice in medieval England. King Edward imprisoned the sister of the "rebel" Robert the Bruce, proclaimed King of Scotland, in a cage hung from the ****walls of Roxburgh**** and also the "traitor" ****Isabella MacDuff, the Countess of Buchan, was hung from a cage in Berwick-upon-Tweed for four years. **


	13. Strange Times

**Chapter 13: Strange Times **

* * *

**"Time is an illusion." **  
― Albert Einstein

**Strange gods squabble in the desert and Nick pays the price. A strange trio is summoned to find that which was lost. **

* * *

**Western Desert 1942**

Sam's hand shook in fear as he aimed his pistol at the jackal in front of him. The tall black-furred canine god only wore a white linen piece of fabric around his waist as if it was a kilt and a belt made from woven reeds held his curved sickle-shaped sword, which appeared to be made from bronze. There was something powerful which the creature seemed to radiate with, something unseen but felt within his very psyche. "Who are you!" the tank commander asked yet again in as menacing of a voice that the human could muster.

"What I am is none of your concern," Anubis growled back in a condescending manner. "A mere mortal, even one as strange as you, would never understand the ways of we gods."

There was a whimpering sound from the fennec fox who was still prostrate upon the ground. "Bring him an offering, some food and drink!" the small fox frantically whispered to the human. "He is a great god."

"I'm not wasting any of our supplies on this guy!" Sam replied. There was the sound of the machine gun's bolt being drawn back and Nick looked up to see that Leroy had trained the large gun at the god.

The tank's driver looked down at the jackal and stated, "This may not kill you man, but it sure will hurt like hell!"

"Don't you fear death?" Anubis asked as he looked up at the human. "I am a god of death."

"Sure I don't want to die, who does?" Leroy replied. "But I made my peace with God before we crossed over with our unit into Iraq. This might not be where I am supposed to be and why we are here is still a mystery, but I believe that death is not the end for my God conquered death and promised his followers that he will welcome them into heaven."

"Here I control who goes where after their death and not your god," the jackal god scoffed.

"Look we are not here to argue theology," Sam interjected. "But you seem to be awfully interested in the fox and I want to know why you want him dead?"

"It is his son who has caused all of this to happen," Anubis answered as he swept his arms in the air. "You and the scorpions, none of you belong here. The red fox's son is a god and controls time and reality. He must be stopped before all of creation becomes unraveled!"

"That still doesn't answer my question," Sam snapped back. "Why do you want to kill the fox?"

"To release his spirit from his mortal body so I can take him back to the other gods," Anubis sighed. "I cannot transport him alive, only his soul."

"So I have to die, so I can save the world?" Nick asked as he stood before the god.

"Yes mortal," the jackal god nodded. "It is the only way."

"Then do what you must," the fox muttered out as he lowered his head. "If it will save others, I am willing to give my life." Nick closed his eyes and when he heard the sword being drawn from its scabbard he added, "Is this going to hurt?"

"I'd think so," another voice cheerfully answered from among the ruins. "You do know that killing him is not really necessary?" The jackal god lowered his sword as everyone looked over to see a white fox sitting on the remains of a wall.

"You…how?" Anubis asked as he watched the naked fox stand up on his four paws and wag his nine tails.

"Oh come on brother, I may not be the god worshipped by the fennec foxes, but this world is full of other foxes who are my followers," the strange fox answered as he smirked at the jackal.

"You're Kitsune and you are real?" Nick choked out in surprise. He stood there with his mouth hanging open. Then he noticed that the humans around him stood frozen as if they were cast from stone.

"It all my heavenly perfect cosmic fur," Kitsune laughed as he leaped off the wall and landed near Anubis. "Except I'm pretty sure I'm called Kumiho in this reality or maybe Tenko? I'm also not sure if my fur should be white or golden when I'm here? As for your friends, that's just a simple binding spell I use for fun. They should be fine when I'm done here and let them go."

"So by the fact that you are here, but so are these mortals, I can assume that the rabbit has not yet chained the new time god?" Anubis asked.

"There was a slight problem in that plan," the fox god answered as he shook his head. "It seems that the little bunny was very headstrong and managed to convince Arianrhod to take her to him and…well, they were sent somewhere else by the new god."

"Are you talking about Judy?" Nick interjected in a frantic tone. "Did something happen to Judy?"

"Quiet mortal!" the jackal god sniffed in contempt. "We gods are talking."

"Don't yell at one of my worshippers like that," Kitsune teased the larger god. "Do I yell at yours?"

Before Anubis could respond, a whirlwind of sand appeared in their midst and as it fell away, Set stood there. "I was victorious and have rid the desert of those evil creatures!" the snake god happily boasted. Then he saw the white fox standing there. "What are you doing here? Go back to your eastern lands fox!"

"You always have such loving words for a fellow god!" the fox god scoffed. "That is what makes you so popular during parties."

"I have no patience for a trickster god, such as you!" the serpent god hissed and then turning back to Anubis he asked. "Cousin, why is this mortal still alive? I thought we agreed that you were going to take his soul back to the other animal gods?"

"Great, go and kill the father of the god who is already angry and destroying everything," Kitsune sighed as he rolled his eyes. "That will really impress him!"

"Then what would you have us do?" the serpent god snapped at the fox god. "We cannot transport his mortal body, can you?"

"Nope, but we both know who can!" the fox god said with a grin as he pointed at the rising sun.

"No…no…absolutely not!" Set hissed out in anger.

"Don't tell me that Ra is still mad at you for killing your brother Osiris?" Kitsune asked. The fox god's head was tilted sideways in curiosity. "After all, didn't you help him repel Apep?"

"Still, no!" the desert god shook his head.

"He's not mad at you, right?" the fox god looked at the jackal god. "You go and talk to him."

"Why don't you?" Nick interjected.

"It doesn't work that way my meddling mortal," Kitsune replied as he gave the other fox a wink. "If I go, it won't be Ra up there, but instead, well let's just say it will be a certain sun goddess who I would have to face and she still isn't happy about a prank I pulled on her a millennium ago."

"I'm not seeing a god or goddess up there, but only the sun," Nick continued. "Everyone knows the sun is a star in the center of the solar system."

"Science always takes the fun out of everything," the fox god complained as he morphed into an anthrophonic form and stood up on his two foot paws. "Don't think with your head, but feel with your heart." He poked the other fox in his chest. "Maybe it would be easier to just let them kill you and take your soul?"

Nick winced, at first from the god's touch before he gasped and stiffened while he looked down in surprise at the end of a bloody curved bronze sword which was sticking out of his chest.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Kitsune barked out as he leaped back from where the tall jackal god was pulling his sword free from the now dead body of the red fox.

"It is easier this way," Anubis answered. "We are out…"

Braaatttta tattt tatt

Leroy had shaken himself free of the spell which had bound him and opened fire with the massive machine gun that was mounted on the tank and the Browning's heavy bullets slammed into the god of death, sending him staggering backward. The smaller white nine tail fox moved with a speed the mortals could not comprehend and before the tank's driver even knew it, the fox god was standing on the turret and had grasped the gun with his paws. "STOP THAT!" Kitsune snarled.

Below them, the other humans and the small fennec fox were still motionless.

Anubis stood back up and shook himself as he snarled at the human with the large gun. "You dare assault a god?" he growled as he brought his sword up.

"Not now cousin," Set cautioned. "You must first catch the fox's soul before it escapes too far from his body, for he is not one of our followers and will go to his god's version of heaven."

Nick had felt the searing pain when the blade tore into his body, but now the only thing he was feeling was weightlessness and he seemed to be floating in the air above his body which lay twisted upon the rubble-strewn sand. A great light appeared above him and he heard voices, with curiosity he began to float towards the bright light and whatever was within it which gave him that comforting feeling of rest and love. Suddenly his assent stopped and he tugged at the large paw which had seized him, looking back he realized he was in the clutches of the jackal god. "Come, we have much to do," Anubis called out.

From the corner of his eye, the newly dead fox saw something watching them before it disappeared. He knew within his very consciousness that it was the real spirit of death and not another mere god.

* * *

**Nottingham: 1215**

The T-Rex who will be called Sue, winced as she struggled to her two large feet and slowly looked around. That white feather stuck between her eyes was bothering her, but there was nothing she could do to work it loose. Looking around, she sniffed the air and smelled the distance fire coming from the woods and the stench from the village of Nottingham. She frowned when she saw that a mist was coming from the river before her, a dark mist that would conceal her prey from her eyesight and she would have to rely on her sense of smell instead as she hunted. Striding down the riverbank, she was engulfed in the mist and she suddenly realized two things that she hadn't noticed before, she wasn't hungry and her side no longer hurt.

In the leafy bowels of Sherwood Forest, Judy sat by the fire and listened to the bard sing an old song about a knightly fox and his maidenly lover, who was the daughter of the rabbit king. The smoke from the fire before her began to billow out around her and she found herself lost within its grasp.

A fog rolled down the river, a thick seeming wet evening fog like those found on a cool summer's morning when the sun rises in the east. Marion held the strange feather and prayed to the god known as the Great Lion and the Meek Lamb, she who was he and was one. The fog suddenly seemed to thicken around her and she could no longer see even the stout bars which held her prisoner. With a gasp, she found herself standing naked in a glade within a very primitive dense forest and in the center, there was what appeared to be an old circle of stones. It was an ancient Neolithic henge which must have been there long before the Legionnaires walked this land or even the Church came with its strict version of religion.

"Who are you and where am I?" a voice asked from the darkness. The vixen squinted as a gray furred rabbit stood there in the shadows. Realizing she too was naked, the newcomer blushed and called out, "Where are my clothes?"

There was a heavy thump and both the vixen and rabbit stared in awe as another creature entered the grass-covered ring. "Lost…so lost…not hungry…no hurt," the large-headed beast said as she towered over the others.

"Tis the dragon!" Marian cried out in fear. "Don't eat us!"

"Not hungry…no eat," Sue said as she tilted her head in confusion when she realized that she understood what the puny creatures were saying.

"Sisters!" a voice calmly spoke and the transparent figure of an owl appeared in the center of the stone circle. "Peace be with you my holy trinity of daughters, for you three have much to do. Tonight you shall retrieve that which was hidden after good King Arthur died, I am sending you to return the Holy Grail."

"Arianrhod!" Judy cried out. "I thought they killed you?"

"Death and I are old friends," the goddess laughed. "And she too has had enough of your son's temper tantrum."


	14. Death Cometh

**Chapter 14: Death Cometh**

* * *

"**Reality means you live until you die...the real truth is nobody wants reality."  
**― Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor

**The fate of the children of ****Asgard**** is revealed as a new powerful entity enters the story.**

* * *

*****EVERYONE STAY HEALTHY & WASH THOSE PAWS*****

**AS FOR COVID-19, JUST REMEMBER WHAT THEY SAY IN THE TRI-BURROWS AREA: ****"LETTUCE ROMAINE CALM AND CARROT ON!" **

* * *

**Somewhere Beyond Time **

"Jörmungandr, put Thor down!" It was a soft command which neither the World Serpent nor his father Loki was expecting to hear. "It is not the time for his or your death, for I will come for the both of you during Ragnarök." The creature who spoke to them appeared to be a young humanoid female dressed in a black top and jeans, a silver ankh hung from a chain around her neck. Her skin was pale white and her hair stark black, there was a small tattoo that looked like the Eye of Horus under her right eye and she gave the surprised god a thin knowing smile.

"Mistress Death," Hel spoke, she stood there with her brother Fenrisúlfr in her arms. The wolf puppy wiggled and barked at the sight of the newcomer. "Who my scaly brother wishes to eat is no concern of yours."

"My dear goddess of death, have you really thought this through?" the young-looking not human female laughed as she approached the goddess. Reaching out her pale hand, she stroked the puppy under his chin and Fenrisúlfr's tail wagged in happiness at the attention. "For when your brother feasts upon these babies, they will die and where should I deliver their souls? In your religion, there are but two places for a spirit to reside after death, either in Valhalla or in Niflheim. Since Valhalla is only for those who died heroically in battle and Odin emptied it out of its heroes, there is only your realm in Niflheim. I do hope you have plenty of diapers, for you will need them?"

"Put him down NOW!" Hel screamed at her brother. "I am not changing thousands of dirty diapers for the next eternity."

"Can I at least eat the puppy?" Jörmungandr hissed back as he looked at Fenrisúlfr. "I'm so hungry!"

"No, you may not eat your brother!" Loki admonished the serpent, even as he quickly plucked up the young eight-legged colt named Sleipnir and held him away from the World Serpent's reach. "You may eat Thor's two goats."

Licking his chops, the serpent slithered across the Rainbow Bridge towards the two fleeting goat kids.

"He will never catch them," Death laughed as she took the black wolf pup from Hel's arms and cuddled him. The puppy licked her face as he wagged his tail. "I do love children, they don't know to fear me yet."

"My brother isn't the smartest in the family," Hel sighed and shook her head as she watched the serpent frantically strike at Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr who seemed to dance teasingly just out of his reach. "It's hard to believe that he will grow large enough to encircle a world."

"So what are you doing here?" Loki snapped in an aggravated tone. "I would have expected you sooner when he killed some of the gods, surely you should have come for the souls of the dead Olympians when they were destroyed.

"Oh they didn't die," Death replied as she passed Fenrisúlfr back to his sister's arms. "They were just turned to dust. I think it is time that I introduce myself to this new god of time. He and I need to have a chat about all the chaos and death he has committed, he is working me far too much."

"He will destroy you too or maybe turn you into a baby," Hel cautioned her.

"No my dear goddess," the pale girlish looking spirit said as she passed by her. "I am ageless and beyond being just immortal. There are two things that no mortal or god can stop and those are time and death." She paused and put a finger to her cheek as if remembering something unpleasant. "Well, except for that preacher from Galilee, but He wasn't what He seemed."

"Could you stop by Niflheim sometime and maybe we can have lunch or something? It gets kind of lonely when you only have the shades of the dead to talk to," the goddess of death quickly asked. "All they want to talk about how miserable their lives were."

"You could try to make that place a little more entertaining," Death called back as she began walking towards the lightning flashes. "Why don't you install cable or the internet, something to keep their minds off of being deceased?"

Aion saw her approached him and he turned towards her. "You are not God!" he snarled and before she could reply, he struck her with a bolt of time.

Death staggered and gave a grunt as the time lightning tore into her and she frowned when she realized that the impact had morphed her from being a girl to a skeletal creature in a black robe and carrying a scythe. "I always hated this look," she fussed as she willed herself back into her favorite avatar. "Much better!"

"Leave me alone!" Aion snapped out in anger. "Just go away before you get hurt. I want God and not whoever you are!"

"Richard Wilde, you can't hear me if you won't listen!" Death chided the god Aion by using his true name as she continued to struggle through the time and reality vortexes to get closer to the hybrid fox rabbit. "Now calm down, I am Death and you can't hurt me."

The darkness seemed to suddenly go calm and almost peaceful for once as the god of time faced the personification of death. "Where were you when I needed you before?" he choked out in tears. "You took away everyone I loved, my Nockotia, Natasha, my father, Uncle Finn, everyone I loved and I was left so alone. I thought I had ended it all when I threw away the pocket watch, I should no longer exist."

"You don't," Death said as she reached over and wiped a tear from Aion's furry cheek. "I'm not sure what happened, but you don't really exist now. I know this because I am always there whenever anything is born and when it dies, but I knew nothing about you until you just appeared in Zootopia."

In the middle of some woods, in another dimension, others watched. "This is our chance!" the Monkey King called out to the other animal gods. "Death has his attention! We must attack and subdue him with these chains before he knows what is happening." With a whirl of his staff, the god soared off towards the darkness with the magical chain Gleipnir clutched in his paws.

One by one the animal gods followed, some such as the hare god Manabozho, reluctantly joined in on their desperate assault.

It was like a thunderclap as the gods leaped into the darkness and at the new god of time. "Stop!" Death desperately tried to call out when she saw them appear, trying to halt their foolish attempt.

The large bull god grasped the small fox rabbit in his hoofs even as the Monkey King ran down the bovine's massive arm to loop the chain over Aion. Several of the other gods seized the chain and pulled it tight around the now bound hybrid's body. "Victory!" the Monkey King chattered out in triumph.

That triumph was short-lived as Aion struggled against the chain, which at first seemed to control and suppress his powers. Then there was a blinding flash and all of time and reality seemed to explode.

Death screamed as she was thrown through one dimension after another and with a thump she crashed down into the sand. She gave a groan from feeling unaccustomed pain while she unsteadily wobbled as she sat up and looked at the large tan-colored tank that she had bounced off. "Who the hell are you?" Set hissed as he looked down at the new human-like creature who had suddenly appeared from nowhere.

"This isn't good," a white nine-tailed fox yipped in surprise. "She was Death!"

Far away from that desert, the fox rabbit who was calling himself Aion coughed and sputtered as he shook the swamp water from his fur. "Hey you!" a voice called out and he looked up to see several rats clinging to the branches of the tree above him. "You better get up here!"

"Why?" Aion asked. There was a hissing noise from behind him and he turned to see a large green alligator lunging at him. Leaping like a rabbit, he hopped up and caught one of the tree's lower branches, with a grunt, he pulled himself up higher into the tree even as strong jaws snapped closed just below his tail.

"We've been stuck up here for days," another rat said. "Do you have anything to eat or drink?"

The hybrid fox rabbit looked at the rat and then down at the alligator which prowled below them. He focused his powers on the creature, but nothing happened for the time god seemed powerless!

* * *

**I chose that the character Death to appear as in some of the DC Comics, specifically as shown in a series of comics titled **_**T**__**he Sandman**_**, by Neil Gaiman**. _(I__ do not own the rights to DC Comics or any of its characters. This story was written solely for the reader's enjoyment and without any profitable purposes. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious.) _

**Natasha was Aion/Ricky's second wife, who he married many years after his true love ****Nockotia had died. The two of them used to play at being Doctor Who. **


	15. Oblivion

**Chapter 15: Oblivion**

* * *

"**No angels or Gods, neither old nor new sang for them. Only oblivion kept them company as the coaxing whisper of fatigue lulled a few to ruin."**  
― H.S. Crow Beyond Time

**Robin and the Sheriff of Nottingham learn about their loved one's fates and the dashing rogue also realizes that his one-time enemy was much nobler than he thought. Judy, Marian, and Sue have a conversation, but with Nick now dead, do our heroes have a **_**"GHOST"**_** of a chance?**

*****EVERYONE STAY HEALTHY & WASH THOSE PAWS*****

* * *

Time, like space, should be endless but it was damaged by a singular event of cosmic proportions. One after another, realities and dimensions began to collapse upon themselves and it seemed to those who called themselves gods, that the destruction was unstoppable. A godlike scientist named Metron knew that the end was inevitable and instead of using his Mobius Chair to flee towards a false safe haven that did not exist, he embraced the unstoppable even as the gods around him fled in panic and despair.

Loki, the Norse god of mischief tenderly held his son Sleipnir in his arms while his daughter Hel clutched her brother Fenrisúlfr in hers, the puppy whined in fear. Her other brother Jörmungandr coiled himself behind her as if she could protect him. Around them, the babies who were once gods squalled in fear. The goddess of death knew that this was beyond mere death, more final that Ragnarök itself, for this was the end of everything for everyone.

The time-driven damage didn't just blink everything from just being or turned anyone into dust as if it was the simple snapping of a hand inside of a gauntlet clad with some minor mystical stones, instead it seemed to roll along as it devoured everything within its dark path. The end was agonizingly slow, but unavoidable in its finality, for it was oblivion!

* * *

**Nottingham 1215**

Many realities far away and in a wooded place called Sherwood Forest, a dashing red fox in a green tunic knelt near the fire next to his onetime enemy, a black wolf in knightly armor, while they both listened to a small rabbit give his report. "Fie, they hath caged fair Marian and your innocent daughter above the gates to the town. They art but bait in the king's trap," the fox named Robin Hood sighed out. "But still we must strive to go forth from this place and rescue them!"

"To do so will play right into the king's paws," the knight growled. "As the Sheriff of these lands and Nottingham, I expected him to try to punish me for siding with the barons. However, for him to treat my young daughter in such a barbaric manner is beyond the pale even for King John."

"Aye, King John's debauchery doth know no bounds," the fox gloomily added. "Yet we cannot let leave those fair maidens in his clutches."

"Rob, we don't have enough soldiers to lay siege to the town's walls and they are too thick to take by force," The bear added as he towered over the others.

"Aye, Little John we do not," Robin mused. "But there are other ways into fair Nottingham besides the gates. Verily we hath been inside yon stout walls before without our good friend here knowing."

"You would be surprised how many times I knew," the Sheriff of Nottingham sighed as he shook his head. "Did you never wonder why I always assigned those two dimwitted weasels Nutsy and Tigger to the easiest part of the wall that could be scaled?"

"I wondered more about why your gardener never cut those damned rose vines back?" the bear chuckled. "Especially in the area which was the closest to Marian's bedchamber, Rob used to scramble up and down those vines faster than a squirrel up a tree."

"Sometimes in the morning hours before the sun arose, I would watch from hiding as Robin swept his cap off so dramatically before he bid Marion farewell with that last shared lover's kiss of the night," the Sheriff chuckled. "You two don't know many times I could have released an arrow and put an end to you rogue ways?"

"If thou knew so, then why did thou not stop me?" Robin scoffed. "Surely thou dost jest."

"Because you never did the citizens of Nottingham any harm and you were a thorn in John's arse," the wolf answered. "But my wife was sad when you took Marian from our home, she so enjoyed the vixen's company. So tell me, Robin, what happened between you two, for I was sure that what you felt for Marian was true love?"

"King Richard insisted that we joined him on his campaign," Little John answered for the dejected-looking fox. "He liked to listen to the stories of our adventures, for Rob can spin a tale of two and he tended to get more creative the more he told them."

Robin Hood looked down at the fire and sighed. "Fie, I hath been known to over exaggerate a tad. But to follow good Richard the Lionheart, did cost me the love of my life and now Richard's evil brother doth use her so foul. I would offer my life for hers, for without Marian there tis nay Robin."

"So how do we get into the town?" the Sheriff asked.

"Don't forget there's still the dragon lurking out there too," Little John reminded them both.

"Ah guys!" the strange-looking creature named Tony called out the others. "Does anyone know where Judy went? The fire's smoke billowed up and when it cleared she was gone, but she left behind her clothes."

"Great, now we got a crazy naked bunny running around the woods too!" Little John scoffed. "That'll really get Skippy's sons distracted."

The missing rabbit doe known as Judy Hopps was not in the woods but rode side by side next to a red fox vixen on the top of the head of the creature that Little John had called a dragon. "Mayhaps we should do something about our lack of clothing" the vixen named Marion suggested as they slowly approached the foggy banks of the river which led towards the distant town. "I am a nun, so no one but my late dear parents and my retired nurse have seen me this naked before."

"What about Robin Hood?" Judy asked with a grin. "If all those legends are true, you two were lovers?"

Because of the night's darkness, the bunny could not see the insides of the vixen's ears blush. "Aye that rogue has more than once see me this way," Marian finally giggled. "After all, he was my husband at one time."

"And did he see you naked before that?" the rabbit giggled. The vixen did not answer, but even in the dark Judy could tell by the way she was acting that Marian was embarrassed by the truth.

"What be clothes?" Sue grumbled from below them as she tried to tread upon the ground as lightly and silently as she could.

"You wear them to cover yourself," Marian answered.

"Why?" the large beast asked.

"For the sake of modesty," the vixen laughed. "One should be modest and not flaunt your body before others, especially males."

Sue just sighed in confusion before she asked what seemed to be a simple question in her reptilian mind, "How find mate then?"

"That my large friend is a question that I have not yet successfully answered," Judy replied.

"That is easy, first you smile and then blink your eyes daintily at the male," the vixen began to explain. "Then coyly swish your tail and thrust out your chest when he notices you. When he draws near you, compliment him about how noble and valiant he looks…"

"Wait!" the bunny interrupted her. "What you're saying is that you should throw yourself at him?"

"Nay!" Marian laughed. "You are not a tramp, so do so coyly and with grace."

"Have babies you do?" Sue sighed out as she rolled her eyes in disdain at what the vixen was saying. "Too much hard to mate you do."

"Nay," Marian sadly answered. "Robin and I chose not to have kits until we were married for a few years, but then he left with the king."

"Do you have any children?" Judy asked the dinosaur.

"Mated…lay eggs," Sue sadly answered. "Nest raided…little bad ones eat eggs…all gone."

"That's terrible!" Marian cried out.

"Me was sad," Sue grunted. "Death easy…life not easy."

They found a small abandoned hut, which had some discarded clothes that could fit Marian, but they were for a male peasant and she frowned at them. "I'll look like a tod in these!" she fussed as she pulled them on, they had a musty scent which caused her nose to wrinkle.

Judy had found an oversized shirt that was large enough to hang down to her knees and used a rope for a belt. "We look like vagabonds," Marian sighed as she tried to adjust her tunic so it appeared more feminine than it currently did.

"Clothes taste bad," was all Sue could grunt out. "Shiny ones hurt teeth."

"That must have been the armor and chain mail worn by the knights and warriors you ate," Judy replied. "You really shouldn't eat living things."

"Hungry I was," the large T-Rex snapped back. "Hungry no more."

The vixen and the rabbit climbed back onto Sue's head and pondered their next move as they stared at the distant town and its walls. "So all this time the Blessed Cup has been within the town itself?" Marian whispered in awe. "All this time it has been hidden from even the Church."

"The ghost of the goddess Arianrhod was very vague about what we are supposed to do when we find it," Judy added. "But she said it was our only hope."

Hiding behind a bush along the river, a small rabbit watched as the vixen he knew was Marian, along with a very pretty rabbit doe he did not recognize, as they sat on top of the head of the dragon. Slipping down the bank, he tried to sneak away.

"Someone is watching," Judy whispered to the vixen, she had heard the intruder's stealthy pawsteps. "Down by the banks of the river."

"I eat?" Sue asked as she sniffed the air.

"No!" Marian quickly answered the large beast's question after she spied who it was. "It is Skippy and he's an old friend of mine. He's probably running to tell Robin what he saw."

"Then maybe we need to get going," her companion said.

"No, we could use Robin's help," the vixen countered. "If anyone is crafty and sneaky enough to know how we can get inside the town and past the king's army, that sly fox will!"

Sue ambled toward the woods and hesitated when she saw a group of smaller creatures once again blocking her path with the three large things which threw sharp sticks at her. "Afraid I am," she said to the vixen and bunny on her head. "Hurt me they did."

"They won't hurt you this time," Marian said as she hopped off of the dinosaur's head and approached the line of warriors. "Stop!" he yelled. "She is not your enemy!"

"Marian?" a voice called out from the dark woods. "Is that you?"

"Robin?" she began to call back, but the dashing looking tod had sprinted out of the woods and engulfed her in his arms.

"Hurt he does?" Sue growled as she began to show her teeth while she watched the male fox scoop the vixen into his arms before kissing her.

"No, that's the way a male fox greets his mate," Judy answered as she gently patted Sue's head. The T-Rex had calmed down once she realized the vixen was safe.

Hesitantly the others came out into the open and stared at awe at the huge creature they called a dragon and the small rabbit on her head.

"Now let's find out how smart the legendary Robin Hood really is?" Judy said as she stood up upon Sue's head and waved at the human named Tony and the others.

* * *

**Western Desert 1942**

Death screamed as she felt unaccustomed pain while Leroy tried to set her broken arm back into place before he wrapped the split from the tank's first aid kit around her injury. She was an Endless and had never felt pain before, she had only seen it from those she led over into death.

"You have become mortal," Anubis muttered in surprise. "How did that happen?"

"The question is what is going to happen to those who she is supposed to release from their lives?" Set added as the snake god knelt in the sand and picked up the small still frozen fennec fox, one of his worshippers.

The white nine-tailed fox glanced towards the small tan-furred fox in the other god's paws and tried to suppress his jealously for the desert foxes were followers of the god of the desert instead of him, the god of the foxes, and that had always been a sore subject between the two.

"God or no gods, will someone do something with me!" Nick snapped from above. His ghost floated above everyone as he looked down at them. The white light was now gone and he had been released by Anubis.

"There is no place to take you," Anubis replied as he shook his head. "Your son seems gone, along with where he was. No, I can sense a great unraveling has begun and soon we all will just disappear into oblivion."

"Could someone at least cover my body?" the ghost fussed back as he pointed to his blood-stained cadaver sprawled on the ground. "I was rather fond of that body."

"Just do it yourself!" Kitsune said. "You're a ghost, why don't you possess one of these mortals' bodies. Here, try this one. The fox god snapped his finger and Sam gave a gasp as he became mobile once again. "You just fly into him and push. You might want to hurry before your spirit fades, that happens if you don't possess something or cross over into death."

Before Sam could recover, Nick slammed into the body and he felt stuck. He could feel the human within and his memories flooded into his consciousness. The body stumbled slightly before Nick could gain control of the human.

"_Get out of my body!" Sam's consciousness snapped at the intruder. _

"_I can't, they killed me and I have no place else to go!" Nick thought back. "We're stuck together until this can get sorted out."_

"_Is the girl really Death?"_

"_I think so… at least that's what the gods are saying. Something bad has happened, but for now, let's pick up my body and at least lay it out with some dignity and maybe even respectfully cover it up."_

The human reached into a bin and found a tarp. After laying the fox's body onto it, he wrapped the sand-colored fabric around the fox's remains like a cocoon.

"_I really wish you would go and possess something or someone else fox!" the human chastised the ghost. "Your memories are rather…disconcerting to a human. You can really lick yourself down there with your tongue? That's rather gross."_

"_You've got some habits of your own which are distasteful too!"_

"_Didn't the nine-tail fox say you could haunt other things?"_

"_What are you thinking about? No…no…not that tank!"_

"_Why not? Every tanker has heard the fairytales of a tank being haunted by a famous Confederate general named JEB Stuart during the Second World War."_

_Nick reached out and straining, he pulled himself from the human's body into the tank. Within moments he found himself within the large metal shell and all of the electronics. Concentrating, he moved the turret to the left, causing Leroy to cry out in surprise. "Well that actually worked!" the fox jubilantly proclaimed over the tank's intercom. "This is kind of weird, but neat!" _

"The fox is haunting our tank!" Leroy groaned out loud while he watched as Nick caused the machine gun above him wiggle. "Oh, that is just peachy!"

"Better the tank than me!" Sam called back.

The three gods and the girl, who was once Death, stepped back as the sky above shook and what appeared to be a fireball fell towards them. With a thunderous and blinding flash, it landed in the sand behind them. 'LET US FINISH THIS!" a voice spoke and the gods and mortals turned to find a ram-headed god standing there, next to him was a tall powerful human-looking creature in a toga.

"Amon-Ra!" Anubis cried out as the god of death knelt in the sands before the newcomer. Set too respectfully knelt and even the fox god Kitsune fell to his knees.

"All is in place," the powerful god next to the ram-headed god proclaimed. "You mortals are needed elsewhere."

"Mighty Zeus!" Kitsune called out. "I thought you were destroyed by the new time god?"

"I was cast away," the king of the Greek gods said. "I found myself on the edge of eternity itself and when I peeked over, I saw our fate. The fox must be returned to the rabbit."

"But he is just a ghost, he has no power?" Anubis meekly pointed out.

"No, he is much more now!" Ra replied as he pointed at the tank. "Now stand back for Zeus and I must send these mortals to where they are now needed. It will require us to use all of our combined powers to do so. Quickly mortals climb about your chariot of destruction!"

Godly powers glowed around them as the two mighty beings drew upon all of that reality's magic to power their effort and lightning crackled around them as they cast their spell. Nick felt as if he was almost being torn asunder and the four humans inside hung on to whatever they could as they screamed in terror.

He felt the soft grass under his treads as they seemingly landed in a field before a large green forest. Nick used the tank's ballistic fire-control computer to look around. He focused on a large dinosaur, which was standing there looking back at them in awe, and then at a familiar-looking rabbit who was standing on its head. "Hey Carrots!" he blared out over the tank's radio. "A funny thing happened to me, I got killed and now I'm a tank!"

"Nick?" Judy called back. "Is that really you?"

* * *

_**The Haunted Tank**_** was a D.C. Comic series, which had the ghost of the famous Confederate cavalry commander J.E.B. Stuart haunting an American M-3 light tank during WWII commanded a family member Jeb Stuart. Vertigo later published a brief series when the general haunts an M1A1 tank and its crew in Iraq. **

**Amon-Ra or Ra was considered in later Egyptian mythology as the king of the gods. **


	16. A Bunny & Her Tank

**Chapter 16: A Bunny & Her Tank**

* * *

"**One person's craziness is another person's reality."**

Tim Burton

**As oblivion continues to devour all of reality, our heroes plan their assault upon Nottingham. Evil turns out to be a pain in the tail. **

* * *

The hare god hid in the deepest part of his temple surrounded by many of his children and their mothers, with ears plastered against his back and with a wide stare he magically watched beyond his warren as the darkness consumed all around him. It rolled across his dimension leaving nothing in its wake, with a whimper Manabozho held his paws before his body as if he could stop it and then oblivion claimed yet another god and his followers, for they were no more. Mindlessly and unstoppable, it continued its inevitable path across eternity.

Ra stood on the ruins of the old temple as he watched with his all-knowing eyes up into the heavens above him. He had spent a millennium battling with Apep, the serpent god of chaos, but he knew there was no battling this latest threat. Besides the king of the gods was another father god, the Olympian Zeus and he too knew that they were powerless. Below them, a mortal fennec fox whimpered with fear as he was cradled in the arms of his god, Set. Standing next to the serpent god of the desert was Anubis the jackal god of death and clutching his arm was a young girl who was once a Timeless, a being more powerful than any god, but now somehow the once all-powerful personification of Death was mortal. Now that death was no more, she now knew a new feeling she never had before...fear**. **

Despite the creeping approach of oblivion, these four gods still had a spark of hope in the form of a now-dead fox and a small, yet courageous little rabbit.

* * *

**Nottingham 1215**

The small rabbit's sobs would have torn at the dead fox's heart, if he still had one. Nick Wilde was dead and he was now a spirit, a ghost that was haunting a large military battle tank. "Judy…" he called out over the radio. "I'm still here, look Carrots it could be worse."

"Worse?" the rabbit named Judy sniffled. "You're dead!"

"Well I'm still here and we can at least talk."

"But I can never touch you again, hold your paw…you're this metal thing now!"

"This reminds me of the movie, what was it called…oh yes, Ghost! You know where he possessed that psychic," the dead fox commented. In times of stress, Nick had always turned to humor as a coping mechanism and with his long life on the street, that was much too often. "Maybe not, this seems to be like that really old television show I once watched in reruns called My Mother the Car. Wait, that show sucked! Anyways, give my muzzle a kiss!" He wiggled the tank's turret a little to highlight the long cannon's muzzle.

"Nick please," Judy actually smiled as she put a loving paw against the cold metal below her. "Even dead you're trying to cheer me up."

"In all seriousness Carrots, the gods must have had some reason to send me here," Nick spoke through the radio. "It seems that our supposed son has lost control…"

"Nick, I saw him!" Judy cried out. "He was so powerful…so angry…so hurt! I don't think he recognized me and just lashed out in blind rage. The goddess I was with, her spirit sent me and Marian, you know Robin Hood's vixen, and Sue on a quest."

"Wait, who is Sue?"

"The T-Rex standing over there watching us."

"You're now all buddies with a dinosaur? That is weird, even for you Fluff."

"Well, I am talking to a tank. Don't you think that is just as strange?"

"Okay, you might have a teeny weeny point there!" the tank chuckled.

Not far from where the rabbit and the tank were having their conversation, five very lost humans had gathered together. "That is Robin Hood," the human named Tony said as he pointed toward the dashing fox in the green tunic holding a vixen's paws. "Yes, that is Maid Marian, and the wolf apparently is the Sheriff of Nottingham."

"Crap, now we're living in a Disney cartoon!" Leroy sighed. "Where's the singing rooster?"

"No roosters, but now we've got a dinosaur," the time traveler chuckled. "Plus, you've brought us a haunted tank."

The tank's commander shook his head as he watched everyone around him. "One minute we were crossing the border into Iraq and the next we were in the middle of what looked like the Second World War, but with animals in tanks shooting at us. Then there were flesh-eating scorpions and finally what appeared to be ancient Egyptian gods," Matterson sighed out. "So what's your story, how you did you get here in this weird place?"

"That is classified!" Tony began to say and then he hesitated. "We went to war with Iraq? That didn't happen where I come from."

"They invaded Kuwait and President Bush has organized an international force to drive them out."

"President Bush? Who's that?"

"George H Bush is president. He was VP under Ronald Regan and beat…"

"Ronald Regan wasn't president! He ran against Jimmy Carter and lost, Carter had two terms in office. Walter Mondale was then elected and he lost his second term to President McCain, Iraq is our ally against Iran. "

"Yeah, I don't think we're from the same place!" Terry snapped as the tank's gunner watched the rabbit on top of the tank. "Carter didn't come close to beating Regan, just what year is it where you come from?"

"2020 and what is the year where you come from?" Tony answered.

"1991," Terry quickly answered. "So we are not from the same place or time, how do we get home?"

"There might not be a home to go back to," Tony answered. "After listening to the rabbit, it seems that her son is a fox and rabbit hybrid god who has damaged the timeline and much more."

"What about your associates, do they know where you are?" Sam grimly asked. "Can they get to you?"

"I don't know," Tony sadly replied as he shook his head. "But something else must be going on, for some reason you are here."

"We were sent here by those so-called gods for a reason and maybe it's time to figure this out?" Sam said as he began to walk towards the gathered animals. "You say the fox is Robin Hood?" he called back to the other human. "He seems to be busy with that vixen, who's the wolf in armor again?"

"That is the Sheriff of Nottingham," Tony answered.

"Of course he'd have to be," the tank commander muttered.

The Sheriff of Nottingham eyed the approaching human with suspicion and he was startled when the creature came to attention and put his paw to his forehead, he wondered if this was some type of military greeting? But, the knight could recognize that another warrior stood in front of him and so the black wolf lifted his paw to match the gesture.

"Sam Worthington, United States Army," the human stated as he offered his pale hairless paw forward in another seeming manner of greeting. Slowly the wolf released his sword's hilt and carefully seized his paw. Sam was surprised at the size and strength of the wolf's grip. "You seem to be the guy in charge, I'm told you're the local law officer…ah, a sheriff." The wolf in chainmail and metal plates was slightly taller than the six-foot-tall human.

"These are my lands," the wolf replied as he released the puny pale paw and rested his own paw back of his sword's hilt. "You are not from around here."

Sam knew that this was a statement of fact and not a question. "No, we were sent here by two gods," he replied. "They said something about us being needed here to stop something bad which is happening."

"Well that's really helpful," a tall black bear in a green tunic growled as he loomed over both the human and the wolf. Turning to the wolf he added. "Rob wants you, he has a plan."

"Wait," the wolf commanded as he held his paw up towards the bear. The larger bear frowned at the wolf's tone but did as he was ordered. Then turning back to the human the Sheriff asked. "That self-moving chariot of yours is made from iron, is that long pipe some type of a battering ram?"

"No, it's a called a cannon," Sam quickly replied. "It can fire a…well shoot a projectile…" He hesitated trying to explain to the wolf, how could he get someone from a medieval era to understand more modern weapons?

"My question should have been if it can bring down a fortress door?"

"It can bring down the whole door and the walls if needed."

"Then you and your fellow strangers may be the answer to our prayers," the wolf grinned as he put his large paw on Sam's shoulder. Then turning to the bear he added, "There appears to be another way into Nottingham than just by stealth, but first let us figure out how we can first get my daughter our of harm way."

So Sam found himself beside the fire as the fox and wolf discussed their plans. Robin was much more animated in his manner than that of the wolf, who was calm and professional in an aristocratic manner.

"Verily, so doth agree that my friend Alan shalt enter the fair town as a wandering mistral," Robin proclaimed. "Once inside he shalt lower a rope so that I and Skippy might climb up and then we shalt free thy daughter from her cage."

"When she is safe, then we will use our friend's…ah…what did you call it again?" the wolf asked as he leaned over the rough drawing of the town of Nottingham he had sketched in the dirt.

"It's called a tank," Sam answered. "But there is no way it is going to be able to cross that draw bridge into the castle itself."

"All you need to do is create a hole large enough for us to enter the town and once inside, with the dragon's fearsome aid, we can force the king's troops to either surrender or retreat. Can you use your, ah tank, to bring down the castle's wall?" the Sheriff said.

"Easily, but can we get down the town's streets?" Sam asked.

"That we shalt find out good sir!" Robin said with a grin as he slapped the wolf on his shoulder. "Now come! The morning has yet to dawn and it tis time to free thy daughter!"

"Do you know where to find the Holy Cup?" the Sheriff asked as he looked towards the vixen.

"It must surely be within the chapel," Marian answered in a not too confident manner. "But the goddess said it was hidden inside of the town."

"There art many places one could hide such a relic," Robin added. "Nottingham doth have many places indeed, both within and under."

"What do you mean by under?" Sam asked. The tank commander sat back onto the ground.

"During the time of Arthur the village which became Nottingham was called Tig Guocobauc which means Place of Caves," the wolf answered. "There are many caverns below its ancient foundations."

"Then we must trust the goddess will guide us," Marian firmly stated as she looked into the flames.

* * *

**Zootopia: 1925**

"Well, look at all of you stuck in a tree!" a human-looking creature in what appeared to look like a blood-red hoodie with the numbers 666 printed on the back in black.

"That's a new look for you!" Randall called back down.

"Who's that?" Ricky asked as he looked over at another of the rats clinging to a nearby branch.

"Evil," the rat named Fidget answered. "He's the Evil Genius and well, he's evil."

"Thank makes no sense," the hybrid sighed.

"I'm trying a more modern look," Evil answered Randall's question as he gave a small twirl. "This makes me look much more hip…no, that's not the word. Oh yes, rad! I look much more rad like this."

"If you say so," Vermin grunted out, trying not to laugh.

"So you are the cause for all this commotion?" Evil asked as he looked up at Ricky. "What are you some kind of dog? Never mind, it doesn't matter. You are a very troublesome little fellow. I think I should teach you one of my special lessons? What do you think, Robert? Benson? What would look nice? Half-warthog? Half-donkey? Half-oyster? Half-carrot?" There was no answer and the personification of evil turned to find that his minions had fled. "Where did everyone go?"

There was a hissing sound behind the creature known as Evil and he turned to face the very large alligator charging at him. "Noooo!" he yelled as he tried to shoot lightning from his hands, but nothing happened. "Let me go!" he screamed as the large lizard snapped at him and caught his pants in its jaws. With a resounding rip, Evil jumped up and frantically pulled himself into the tree's limbs.

"Maybe we should have warned you about that alligator?" Vermin chuckled.

The being who called himself the Evil Genius just frowned back at the rat.

* * *

**The quote that Evil makes about being a troublesome little fellow is from the movie Time Bandits. **

**NEXT CHAPTER: THE BATTLE FOR NOTTINGHAM**


	17. The Battle for Nottingham (Part 1)

**Chapter 17: The Battle for Nottingham (Part 1)**

* * *

"**Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures."**  
\- Ralph Waldo Emerson

**Plans are placed into motion to save the Sheriff of Nottingham's daughter before it's too late.**

* * *

**Nottingham 1215**

The rope bound red fox in the green tunic was backed against the wall by a large knight's sword. "So Robin Hood, I knew you couldn't resist the little trap I had prepared for you," a skinny lion dressed in regal red and white robes chuckled as he pushed the oversized crown back between his ears while he watched the fox's dilemma. "See Sir Hiss, the trap worked! My trap was baited and set! And now, revenge! Ahh...REVENGE!" he roared in a sinister manner.

The stallion clutching the large sword briefly glanced towards King John and his eyes widened slightly as he saw that the almost mangy looking lion was stoking a small thick rope in his paws as if it was alive. "How well King Richard's crown sits on your noble brow," the lion continued in a higher-pitched voice as if it was the rope which was talking to him.

"Doesn't it?" he replied in his normal voice. "Uh, King Richard?" Gripping the rope he began violently shaking it as he yelled. "I've told you never to mention my brother's name!"

"A...a mere slip of the forked tongue, Your Majesty," John said in that higher-pitched voice again, as if the rope was replying to his admonishment.

"His father would nay let him hath any toys as a cub and thus he doth made up an imagery friend," the fox named Robin Hood whispered to the knight. "Alas, that tis supposed to be a snake. Tis sad, be it not?"

The large black stallion named Sir Hoofler slightly nodded his mane as he glanced back toward his prisoner.

"So my dear Robin, where is dear Marian?" King John asked in his normal voice as he sat down on his throne and jubilantly smiled at the fox. "I so wanted her to witness her hero losing his head to my executioner's blade, but she was not in her cage."

There was a scraping sound of a whetstone along a broad ax blade and both the king and the fox looked over to watch the large brown-furred bear in a black tunic and hood as he sharpened his deadly tool.

"She shalt be here soon enough!" Robin finally answered as he turned his attention back to the lion on the gilded chair. There was a boom, followed by an explosion, which rocked the castle's walls. "Verily, I do believe that tis her and our friends now!"

In a panic King John leaped from the chair and ran to a window, his eyes widened in fear when he saw the sand-colored metal thing that was rolling over the field towards a hole in the stone wall which surrounded the city, behind it was several armed peasants and woodsmammals. He stared with disbelief when he saw that the dragon also behind the metal thing and riding atop of the creature's head was a vixen in chain mail. Clutching the rope to his chest, he stumbled backward. "No…" he muttered almost to himself. Then blinking, he screamed towards the knight, "Kill him! Kill Robin Hood!"

The black stallion shoved the smaller fox across the room and onto his knees before the executioner. With defiant eyes, Robin looked up at the lion. "Thy reign of terror doth come to an end fiend," the outlaw proclaimed even as the bear raised his ax over the fox's head.

"I sentence you to sudden, instant, and even immediate death! Off with his head!" King John snarled as he clutched his rope tighter. "Watch Sir Hiss, we are finally going to be rid of that pesky Robin Hood!"

So, my dear reader, you might be asking just how did our dashing hero get himself into such a bind?

It started hours before while Robin and his allies sat around a campfire in nearby Sherwood Forest. After announcing his audacious plan to have the wandering minstrel Alan-a-Dale con his way into the city through the front gates and then to sneak past all the king's guards so he could lower a robe that Robin and the valiant, but small, Skippy could use to scale the walls and save the Sheriff of Nottingham's young daughter from her cage. The dashing outlaw was pleased with himself as he and his lover Marian went to meet the so-called dragon named Sue.

"That has to be one of the stupidest plans he has come up with yet!" the black wolf growled as he watched the tod and vixen in the distance. "There will be guards all over the walls, why does he even think that is a good idea?"

"You know Rob," Little John sighed with concern. "He always says '_a faint heart never won fair lad_y'."

With a sigh, the Sheriff of Nottingham sat back and stared at the drawing of Nottingham which he had scratched with a stick in the nearby ground. "We will go through the river gate," he finally said. "Robin's little attempted jailbreak will be the exact ruse we will need. Old Tigger and Nutsy are responsible for patrolling that area of the wall, they may be idiots, but they are loyal to me. Hopefully, if whoever is on duty this morning hasn't dozed off, he will let a small team of us inside."

And so as Robin Hood enthusiastically went off into the early morning mists towards the town of Nottingham with a much less enthusiastic fellow fox named Alan and a brave rabbit named Skippy, the black wolf and his paw full of selected warriors discreetly followed them from afar as the remainder of the camp prepared for war.

It was cold and the gaily dressed fox shivered as the town's gate came into view through the mist. Pulling his mandolin from off his shoulder, he began to sing.

"_Every town __  
__Has its ups and downs __  
__Sometimes the ups __  
__Outnumber the downs __  
__But not in __Nottingham...__"_

"Halt! Who goes there?" a voice cried from above him and the fox looked up at a rhino in chain mail was aiming a crossbow at him. Another was standing next to him with a long spear. His eyes narrowed when he saw the teen pup wrapped in her blanket was also looking down at him in despair from her iron cage.

"I'm just a wandering minstrel, looking for shelter and a place to entertain others for alms!" Alan called back. "Come and let me in before the dreaded dragon eats me!"

"I don't know?" the guard said to the other.

"I heard that good King John was inside and you know how he likes his music?" Alan quickly added as he strummed the strings to add emphasis to his words. "The king would be happy to have some soothing music during these trying times, who knows he might even reward you?"

"A reward?" the rhino mused before the called down. "Let him in!"

Once inside and after he was searched for weapons, Alan was pleased that the plan actually worked as he slipped into the dark shadows of the crowded town's buildings. The sly fox had been in Nottingham several times during his adventurous life and quickly he doubled around, seeking a way past the guards and back onto the wall. There was no possible route that he could find that was not guarded and with a sigh, he desperately looked around for any possible answer to his dilemma. "I need a distraction," he firmly said as he pondered his options and then he saw the small chapel sitting alone near the castle. Quickly he sprinted up the lane towards the small holy building and opened the door. It was a humble place constructed from wattle and straw, in the center was a simple altar and a stone sarcophagus.

Alan ran his paw over the stone image of a badger etched on the stone tomb. "I'm sorry Tuck, my old friend," he whispered. "But it seems that Robin needs your help one last time." With that he grabbed up one of the candles and set fire to a tapestry hanging on the wall, the flames moved fast. Fleeing down the street, he felt guilty as the fire began to consume the small chapel. The flames, however, created the distraction he needed when at first he could hear the cries of the guards along the wall and then those of the villagers who now stumbled outside.

Little did the brave fox know that despite his attempts at stealth, he was being watched by the black beady eyes of a rat that followed him through the growing chaos in the streets?

The minstrel finally found an unobserved way up onto the walls and with a grunt, he threw a thick rope down to the other fox who was hiding in the shadows. Robin Hood quickly shimmied his way up the wall and onto the ramparts, followed by Skippy. "There he is, Just like I told you!" a jubilant voice said from the shadows and a small rat in black rags stepped out into the flickering light, behind him was a tall powerful black stallion in armor and several wolves dressed in guard's uniforms.

"Sir Hoofler!" Robin called out the name with disgust. "John's own lackey." Before anyone could move, the fox quickly drew an arrow from his quiver and fired it from his bow at the knight but it glanced off the stallion's shield. Before the first arrow even stuck, the outlaw fired another and this one caught a guard in his chest. With a cry of pain, the dying wolf fell from the battlements onto the street below.

"Seize him!" Sir Hoofler ordered to the rushing guards. "ALIVE! King John wants him alive!"

Robin seemingly danced back and away from a guard's clumsy swing as the wolf tried to use the blunt end of his spear like it was a staff in an attempt to strike the small fox. Even as he did that, Robin let loose yet another arrow, catching yet another guard in his throat and with a gargling gasp that wolf fell back into the others. Then a large fist came down upon the fox from behind, sending the fox sprawling onto the stones. He looked up to see a huge rhino reaching down to grasp him in a tight hold.

Dizzily Robin looked around and realized that Alan had disappeared down the rope, where the minstrel had dogged a shower of arrows as he fled into the woods. Skippy had leapt towards the large knight with his small knife drawn, only to bounce off the stallion's shield and then with a stunning display of aerial twisting, the rabbit had landed on the thatched roof of a nearby building and fled into the darkness. "I'll get help!" the rabbit called out as he disappeared into the early morning mist. The rat, however, had jumped from the wall and was racing after the brave forester, the spy was followed by another larger guard, but the wolf was too heavy and he crashed through the reeds into the building below.

Upon the wall, Robin found himself pushed down on the cold rough stones as he was bound in rope. "Come on fox, King John awaits your company." Sir Hoofler laughed as he dragged Robin towards the stairs. In the distance, the fox could see the burning chapel as the gather the townsmammals who were trying desperately to put off the flames using buckets of water.

From one building onto another, Skippy jumped. Behind him, he heard heaving breathing and turned just in time to dodge the rat's knife. Grabbing the smaller rodent by his tunic, the white-furred rabbit threw him aside as he drew his own knife. The rat charged yet again and their blades met with a rasping clang. By the faint glow of the burning chapel, Skippy suddenly recognized his assailant. "I remember you from when I was a child, you are Sim of Wakefield!" he called out in surprise. "You were once a member of Robin's merry band, why did you turn on him?"

"For the money," the rat bitterly laughed. "Robin Hood never gave us any of the money we stole and instead he gave it to the poor. When Richard returned and Hood went off to war with the king, he left me broke."

"Traitor!" Skippy cursed as he grabbed the rat by his neck and despite the rodent's attempts to bite him, the small, but hardy forester choked him. Sim trashed about as the rabbit squeezed even harder until finally there was an audible gurgling noise and the spy went limp. "Now I've got to free the Sheriff's daughter and then get Robin some help," the rabbit huffed out.

The news that the legendary Robin Hood had been captured spread down the ranks of the guards along the wall and all eyes were on the tall black stallion as he led the bound fox towards the castle, Skippy took advantage of that as he crept slowly along the battlement to where the young wolf hung in her cage. Holding his digit over his lips to quiet Margaret, the rabbit carefully balanced himself as he walked out onto the wooden beam from which the cage was hung. Tying a rope to the hook, he shoved his knife between his buck teeth before he swung down to where he could reach the lock. It took him too many precious moments while he hung there upside down and picked at the old iron lock with the tip of his knife. Slowly he opened the cage and dropped inside.

"Who are you?" Margaret whispered in fear as she clutched the blanket around her.

"Your father and Robin Hood sent me to free you," Skippy answered. He dropped the end of the rope towards the ground, but it wasn't long enough. "You blanket…I need your blanket to tie to the end of the rope. Then I want you to climb down to the ground and then run away towards the river."

"The dragon is out there!" the she-wolf softly whined. "It will eat me!"

"Well, it turns out the dragon is a friend of Maid Marian's"

"Is that how she disappeared? I saw her praying as she held that angel's feather and then she was just gone, she vanished in the mist."

"She's with the dragon," the small rabbit replied as he urged the wolf to climb down the rope. "Just go!"

"What about you?" Margaret asked as she looked up at her rescuer.

"I've got to save Robin Hood," he grimly answered as he began to climb the other direction.

* * *

**The song which Alan sings is from the Disney Movie, along with much of King John dialogue, including the words he has with Sir Hiss. The song _Not in Nottingham_ was both written and performed by the legendary Roger Miller, who also voice acted the part of Alan-a-Dale in the movie.  
**

**Okay, King John has issues in this story, a lot worse than the ones he had in the Disney movie, such as sucking his thumb and calling for his mommy. ****Sir Hiss was a snake in the movie but in my warped version of Zootopia, reptiles did not evolve like the mammals, so I turned him into the king's imaginary friend.**

**Henry Gilbert****'s story **_**Robin Hood**_** names a member of the Merry Men as a pinder or poundmaster named ****Sim of Wakefield****.**


	18. The Battle of Nottingham (Part 2)

**Chapter 18: The Battle for Nottingham (Part 2)**

* * *

"**I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens."**  
― Woody Allen

**Nick and the humans lead the way as the battle for Nottingham continues. Its tank versus knights, and Robin's fate is revealed. **

* * *

**Zootopia 1925**

The large alligator gave out a hissing sound as it settled down under the tree in which a rag tagged group of rats, a half breed rabbit fox, and the personification of evil had taken refuge. "This is ridiculous!" Evil snapped as he looked down at the large reptile and then back at one of the rats. "Why did He send you six idiots here?"

"We were looking for a pocket watch," Fidget answered as he held up a watch. "This watch."

At the sight of the watch, Ricky's ears drooped.

"All of this just for that?" Evil scoffed as he awkwardly clutched the branch he hung from. "That is just an old broken timepiece."

"It's not just a broken watch," Ricky sighed out as he leaned back against the tree's trunk. "It is both the beginning and should have been an end of this."

Beyond the tree, oblivion claimed one reality after another and no creature, no god, or no devil could stop its inevitable arrival. Hope was gone and faith was gone, for all that now remained was just the darkness.

* * *

**Nottingham 1215 **

"I am the driver!" the human named Leroy snapped as he settled down into his seat inside the large tank. "Stop fighting with me or you're going to cause us to get stuck."

The ghost of the fox once named Nick Wilde gave the large M1A1 Abrams tank which he had possessed a shake causing the humans inside to curse. "I can move us without your help," he spoke with the human over the tank's intercom.

"Look…ah, Nick," the tank's commander Sam called back. "There are just somethings that this tank cannot do without our assistance. First, your sight is limited to the fire control system, Leroy uses the periscopes for his visuals when he isn't sitting up and looking out the hatch and those are not intergraded into the tank's systems. Second, you can't load your own shells for the main gun or load any of the machine guns. Third…"

"Actually, he can fire the main gun just as well as I can!" Terry cut in as the tank's gunner popped one of the hatches open and climbed out. "Let him do that and I can help you by using one of the machine guns for suppressing fire." As he talked, he reached down and nudged the tank's loader while pointing towards the M240 medium machine gun, which was quickly passed up to him. A few moments later he had mounted it and loaded it with a belt of deadly bullets. "There, we are all ready, except for one other thing." With that, he slid down and began to rummage through some of the gear which stashed in one of the tank's side baskets. He pulled out a gun case and grinned at the tank commander. "I told you this might come in handy, despite all that flack about having an unauthorized weapon aboard." Terry lovingly began to mount a scope onto and began to load the Remington M783 hunting rifle. "Hey Doc!" he yelled down to Tony. "Have you ever hunted?"

"I have deer hunted before…" Tony began to answer and then he hesitated when he noticed that a dozen tall deer wearing green tunics were frowning at him, they had deadly looking longbows in their hoofs. "Yes, I've used a rifle before."

"Hop up here and you can use this," Terry called back. "It beats a spear."

"Everyone strap on your pistols too," Sam added. "Just in case we have to get out of the tank, I also want the two M16A2 rifles loaded and ready."

The tank suddenly jerked. "Sorry," Nick spoke over the intercom. "I forgot I don't have a tail to wag anymore."

With both Robin and the Sheriff of Nottingham gone, the strange ragged-looking army turned towards Marian for leadership. The vixen had donned an oversized coat of chainmail and had seized a long spear as she mounted Sue's head. Amongst their ranks, in addition to the strange-looking humans, there were nimble rabbits, tall graceful red deer, strapping looking wolves, lanky foxes, steadfast badgers, stout boars, and even a few tartan-clad wild cats down from the distant highlands. There were also tall and mighty bears, heirs to the legendary clans of which the great King Arthur came from, and even small red squirrels, all were armed for the upcoming battle. The small army was armed with bows, spears, swords, battle axes, knives, and even pitchforks.

Marian stood on Sue's large head and lifted her spear above her. She looked like an ancient Valkyrie of legend as she looked out upon those below. "Children of this great isle, sons and daughters of the forest, for all our lives we have been told the stories of our noble ancestors and what the great Arthur once uttered, that might does not make right, but it is right that makes might. Yet King John has forgotten that while he now tarnishes the glory of what was once good King Richard's throne, for he has taken all that we own with his cruel and unjust taxes. He has ground our god given liberties under his paws. Now this hour, this day, it is we who have the right to put an end to his evil ways. March with me! March in the name of good Robin Hood and the valiant Sheriff of Nottingham! March as we reclaim our FREEDOM!"

Cheers, howls, and growls greeted her worlds. "Alright Leroy, let's get moving for we have a castle to storm," Sam called out over the tank's intercom.

"Have fun storming the castle," Leroy sarcastically answered.

"Was that from the Princess Bride?" Nick asked over the intercom.

"Yeah," the driver replied as he put the tank into gear and it began to rumble towards the distant town. "Do you have that movie back where you're from too?"

"Yes, but I wish they hadn't used a fox to play the part of the evil Count Tyrone Rugen," Nick replied with a chuckle.

Inside Nottingham, things were not going quite the way which Robin Hood had planned, for the brave fox had been captured. Little did he know that the Sheriff of Nottingham had made other plans and in the predawn light, a small group of warriors slipped along the bank of the river towards an iron grate mounted in the city's stone and wooden wall. A black-furred wolf in chain mail stood waist-deep in the cold water as he withdrew a long key from the pouch he wore and slipped it into a lock, the old lock came free and he pulled the grate upwards, but it gave a rusty squeak. There were the sounds of shouting inside the town and the warriors hoped that the noise had not been heard.

"Who goes there!" a voice challenged the intruders. "One step further and I'll shoot ya!"

"Tigger is that you?" the wolf called back. Then he saw the weasel pointing his crossbow at him. "Criminently, Trigger! Point that peashooter the other way."

"Don't you worry none, Sheriff. The safety's on Old Betsy," the weasel in the steel cap replied as he patted the crossbow. Suddenly the arrow shot out over the wolf's head.

"What in tarnation are you trying to do, you birdbrain?"

"Just doin' my duty, Sheriff."

"Oh, you and that itchy trigger finger of yours!"

"I thought you were dead?"

"I've come back to reclaim my town," the Sheriff softly answered as he shoved the iron bars upward so that the other could enter. "Have you seen my daughter? Is she alright?"

"She was the last time I saw her, just hanging up there in that cage."

"Why didn't you get her down?" the wolf demanded as he grabbed the weasel's shoulder and shook it.

"Nutsy tried," the weasel softly answered and then he looked down at the ground before wiping his eyes with the back of his paw. "He got caught and the king took his head."

"Nutsy is dead?" the Sheriff softy said almost to himself. "That is another crime for which John must pay."

"I heard from all the shouting that Robin Hood has been captured," Trigger added. "They were hauling him to the king and they have called for the royal executioner."

The Sheriff sighed and looked over at the large warrior in the green tunic who stood in the shadows. "You know what you need to do," he said. "Go and save Robin."

The bear in green nodded as he slipped into the darkness and towards the castle. Drawing his sword, the wolf led his small group of warriors down one of the town's streets. Things were in chaos around them as animals ran here and there as they fought to keep a fire from getting out of control. The Sheriff noticed it was the small chapel he had allowed the villagers to build in memory of Friar Tuck, the waddle and stone building was brightly burning in the early morning's darkness.

"I had to do it," a voice spoke from the shadows and the wolf's eyes focused on the small white rabbit in the green tunic. "I set the fire to the chapel to draw everyone's attention, so I could free your daughter."

"Where is she!" the Sheriff demanded as Skippy stepped towards him.

"Down the wall and into the woods," the small forester answered. "Now we have to save Robin Hood."

There was new shouting as the king's guards on the wall were pointing at something strange approaching out of the sunrise. They could hear cries about the dragon and of a huge metal chariot. "That would be the others," the wolf said.

Inside the castle, things appeared not to be going so well for the gallant fox as he was shoved against the wall and listened to the gloating words of the skinny lion. "So my dear Robin, where is dear Marian?" King John asked as he sat down on his throne and jubilantly smiled at the fox. "I so wanted her to witness her hero losing his head to my executioner's blade, but she was not in her cage."

There was a scraping sound of a whetstone along a broad ax blade and both the king and the fox looked over to watch the newly arrived large brown-furred bear in a black tunic and hood as he sharpened his deadly tool.

"She shalt be here soon enough!" Robin finally answered as he turned his attention back to the lion on the gilded chair. There was a boom, followed by an explosion, which rocked the castle's walls. "Verily, I do believe that tis her and our friends now!"

In a panic King John leaped from the chair and ran to a window, his eyes widened in fear when he saw the sand-colored metal thing that was rolling over the field towards a hole in the stone wall which surrounded the city, behind it was several armed peasants and woodsmammals. He stared with disbelief when he saw that the dragon also behind the metal thing and riding atop of the creature's head was a vixen in chain mail. Clutching the rope to his chest, he stumbled backward. "No…" he muttered almost to himself. Then blinking, he screamed towards the knight, "Kill him! Kill Robin Hood!"

The black stallion shoved the smaller fox across the room and onto his knees before the executioner. With defiant eyes, Robin looked up at the lion. "Thy reign of terror doth come to an end fiend," the outlaw proclaimed even as the bear raised his ax over the fox's head.

"I sentence you to sudden, instant, and even immediate death! Off with his head!" King John snarled as he clutched his rope tighter. "Watch Sir Hiss, we are finally going to be rid of that pesky Robin Hood!"

Sir Hoofler shoved the rope bound fox onto the ground in front of the large bear in the black robe who silently raised his huge ax. With a gulp, Robin awaited the inevitable strike but instead he heard the stallion give a strange grunt and something wet splattered down upon him. The fox realized that there was blood all around him and then he heard the thump of a body hitting the stone tiles. Looking up he saw the bear pull off his hood and grin down at him. "Johnny!" he cried out in joy.

"NO!" King John screamed as the gory head of his knight rolled towards his feet. He was expecting the ax to take the head of the troublesome fox, but instead, the bear had swung it around and chopped off the head of the stallion. Dropping the rope from his lap, he leapt up and fled, only barely avoiding the large ax as it thumped into the back of the chair next to him.

"Damn Rob, I missed his mangy hide," Little John cursed as he drew his knife and bodily picked Robin up. "I never was good at throwing axes."

"How?" was all the fox could muster before he felt the ropes cut and was engulfed in the huge bear's hug.

"I waylaid the executioner on his way over here," Little John laughed as he set the fox down. "So I figured I'd take his place."

There was another boom and the building shook yet again, followed by the crumbling noise of stones falling. "They hath breached the town's walls," Robin excitedly announced as he looked out the window. "Truly, that tis a magnificent weapon."

There was a strange noise, a rat-a-tat-tat and Robin saw a line of mail-clad rhinos fall down as their bodies were torn to bloody shreds. "Not magnificent, terrifying," Little John softly said as he watched the guards die. "Come on Rob we need to go catch King John before he gets away."

The fox and the bear took off down the hallway after the fleeing lion.

Earlier, Leroy had halted the tank to allow Nick to take aim. "Fire!" Sam commanded and the cannon let loose, shaking the tank.

"That tingled!" Nick radioed to the others. The HEAT round had blown a hole in the stone and wooden wall, but it did not collapse.

"Reload!" Sam ordered. "This time shoot lower, that should cause the wall to collapse."

"Loaded and Locked!" Matterson called back.

"Fire!" Sam commanded and Nick fired the large cannon. This time the shells exploded and caused the wall to topple inward crushing several guards who were behind it.

"Suppressing fire!" Sam ordered as he squeezed the trigger of the Ma Deuce, the fifty caliber Browning machine gun roared as it mowed down the archers who were upon the remaining ramparts. Terry opened fire with his smaller machine gun, it rattled as it sprayed its death towards the unsuspecting defenders.

Behind the tank there were gasps of wonderment and cries fear at what they saw before them, even Sue was afraid. "It's okay," Judy spoke softly to the dinosaur. "Just follow Nick towards the town." Bravely Sue let out a roar and followed the tank as it began churning its way towards the opening. A few brave guardsmammals tried to stand their ground, ineffectively firing their bows or throwing their spears at the tank. When they saw it was unstoppable, they fled in fear.

There was a scraping sound as the tank plowed over the fallen rocks and it knocked down yet more of the wall before it could enter the city itself. "We're never going to fit down those streets," Sam sighed. "This is going to be messy, so everyone inside and button-up."

"Shit!" Leroy cursed when he saw a panicked guard had seized a hostage.

"Stay back!" the boar in the mail coat stuttered as he stared wide-eyed at the tank. "I'll kill her!" His knife was pressed against the throat of a young deer doe who whimpered in fear.

BANG! The sound of the hunting rifle echoed down the street. "All those years of deer hunting, I never figured I'd save one instead," Terry grunted as he pulled back the bolt to let the spent shell eject. With a metallic tinkling sound, it bounced off the tank's armored plate. He then tossed the rifle back to Tony. His shot had hit the boar between his eyes, dropping the guard dead on the street as his hostage hysterically fled in fear from the tank and the strange creatures. "Come on Doc, let's get off the tank and give them some room, they are going to make a mess of things now. Matterson handed up one of the M16A2 rifles and a couple of magazines up to the gunner, who jumped off behind the tank. Tony leapt down after him.

"I can see the parade ground just down the street," Sam told spoke to Leroy over the intercom. "Gun it and plow straight through."

As the tank roared down the tight street, the fronts of several of the Wattle and Daub houses crumbled onto the turret or collapsed behind them. Finally the armored behemoth bust out and onto the muddy field. Before them was the stout, strong stone walls of the castle and its surrounding moat. There was an oak drawbridge that was crammed with the king's guards trying to flee inside.

"Nick!" Sam called out. "Try to put a round to the left of the bridge, hit where the opening for the chain is located and see if we can jamb it open before they raise the damn bridge."

The mighty cannon roared yet again and Nick's aim was true, the impact of the round brought the side of the gate crashing down making it impossible for the defenders to either raise the draw bridge or lower the steel gate. The way into Nottingham Castle was left venerable, but everyone knew that the tank could never cross the too small bridge. There was the sound of a machine gun as Nick fired the coaxial gun to clear the bridge of any defenders. As the gun hrew quite there was a might roar as Sue charged forward.

The battle for Nottingham Castle had begun.


	19. Something is Definitely Wrong!

**Chapter 19: Something is Definitely Wrong!**

* * *

"**I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?"**  
― John Lennon

**Sometimes in war, things just don't go the way that they should. **

* * *

**Earth 2020**

"I don't get it?" Doctor Winterthrope sighed out in frustration as he looked at the screen again. "The image has just gone black and that makes no sense whatsoever."

"Adjust the telescope a few degrees," his assistant suggested. Still, nothing showed but darkness and so he picked up the phone and made a call. "Is there a problem with Hubble?" he asked the party on the other end of the line.

"We're not showing any problems with the telescope," a technician replied. "Why?"

"One second we are focused on a quadrant and things were showing up great and then it just went dark. It was as if everything had disappeared."

It was late evening and the traffic was still backed up on Highway 101 just outside of Hollywood. Inside of his luxury car, a famous actor was talking to his friend on the phone. "Yeah Ryan, I got the voice acting job for Zootopia 2," he said as he stared at the seemingly endless line of red lights in front of him. "No, I'm doing the part of the fox again. No, they don't have a role for you. Hey, I thought you were going to do another movie about that goofy mercenary?" A horn blared out nearby and he glanced around to see who was stupid enough to think that honking would speed the traffic any. "I know how much you like to squeeze on those silly red tights," he teased the caller. Then looking up, he noticed something odd in the heavens above. Even with the usual light pollution, you could normally see some stars in the sky, but tonight it seemed that one by one those stars were disappearing and being replaced by a dark inky black emptiness instead. "That's weird?"

Little did they know that oblivion was on its way towards Earth?

* * *

**Nottingham 1215**

Terry watched as the large Tyrannosaurus rex, with the vixen on her head, charged towards the bridge and while the ragtag army behind it followed. There were screams and the clashing of swords when they met the desperate line of the King's Guard who tried to rally. Suddenly he heard a moan from behind him and wheeled around to stare in disbelief that the boar he had shot dead was standing there. "Make the pain stop!" the guard cried out. "Why can't I die?" Blood ran from the bullet hole in his forehead and trickled down his tunic, he was an eerie sight to behold as he stumbled from the extreme pain with his hoofs clutching his head.

Unbeknownst to anyone on the field of battle, those who should have been slain were neither living nor dead. No one knew that Death was no more and therefore they could not die.

The human stepped back and raised his combat rifle, desperately firing round after round into the boar, but it still did not die. Instead, it fell to its knees and squealed in pain.

Inside of the castle itself, the head of a black stallion blinked in surprise as it looked over at his body laying ten paces away. He could not breathe or speak, for his lungs were unable to gather any air. Panic filled his undead mind as he felt the urge to suffocate but could not. Sir Hoofler wanted to scream out in fear, but he could not for Death was unable not to come for him either.

There were screams from within the town as those who should have died during the recent battle rose and wandered the streets. Rhinos whose bodies were torn and shredded by the tank's machine guns stumbled around in fear and pain, desperate to know what had happened and why their gods had forsaken them. A few picked up their weapons and stumbled to rejoin the battle.

Nick had died before Death had been made mortal and had lost her power, so he wasn't affected by the strange unholy event. He felt a slight jarring as both Terry and Tony climbed onto the tank that his spirit possessed. He wanted to know what was happening behind him, but he did not want to turn the turret away from where he was using the fire control system to watch Judy. If any of the guards got to close to her, he fired the coaxial machine gun to bring them down. He felt Sam moving the large Browning machine gun around and felt the shaking caused by it being fired, yet he dared not lose sight of the brave rabbit that he so loved.

Sam fired round after round into the undead guards as they advanced towards the tank. "WHY WON'T THESE DAMN THINGS DIE?" he cursed. They fell as they were struck by the large shells, but many struggled to crawl back up onto their feet yet again. The large rounds slammed into their bodies and he quickly realized that the only way to stop them was to use the shells to shred their legs.

That is when Leroy spoke up over the tank's intercom, "Hey boss, don't you remember the goth looking chick with the broken arm? Didn't the gods call her Death and if she was somehow made human, then she cannot claim the souls of those who died."

Sam looked at the shattered bloody pulps that were once the rhinos, they were twitching and trying to move and their pitiful cries of pain sicken him. "We need to warn the others!" he said as he turned towards Terry. "The only way I can think of stopping the dead is to remove their arms and legs."

"Dismember them?" Tony said in disbelief as he listened to the other's conversation. "Are you telling me that you saw Death itself, at least a manifestation of death?"

"Yep and she wasn't a skeleton dressed in black robes with a scythe either," Terry nodded. "She looked like a teen dressed in black, not at all scary."

"Anthropomorphic animals, haunted tanks, gods, and dinosaurs," Tony muttered almost to himself as he looked towards the castle. "If I ever get home, they are going to lock me up in an asylum and throw away the key."

Sue had charged across the bridge with a mighty roar and the presence of the so-called dragon was more than most of the king's guard could handle, in fear they fled. With a snap of her powerful teeth, she snatched up one brave rhino that tied to stab her with a spear and shook him before she let his body soar through the air and into a stone wall with a sickening crunch.

Judy was right behind her and looked to see that Marian had leaped off Sue's head and was urging the rebels onward. She paused when she saw something began to move and glanced over to see the rhino, which should be dead, was trying to stand. Its head was in an unnatural position as if broken. "Marian," she warned the vixen who was closer to the rhino. "Watch out."

Marian turned and threw her spear into the not dead guard, who grunted before he put his hoofs on the shaft and pulled it out. Both the vixen and the rabbit stared in surprise.

Inside the castle, Robin and Little John raced down into the bowels of the fortress after the cowardly lion who was King John. Two guards tried to stop them, but the fox vaulted over their heads just as the large muscular bear barreled into them. Little John knocked them off the staircase and sent them crashing onto the hard stone below. With a curse, the onetime bandits realized they had lost sight of the mangy lion. "Now what?" The bear asked.

"Alas, we shalt never find him in this maze of tunnels and caverns," Robin Hood admitted. "Come, let us join the battle above."

In the courtyard, the Sheriff of Nottingham had entered the battle. The black wolf's sword swung out, driving back several guards who had tried to rally. He drove his sword into the chest of another wolf wearing the king's colors, ripping it out as he turned to block the blow from pike welding rhino. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the silvery glimmer of what should have been the slain guard's sword as the wolf swung down towards his back. Twisting he dove towards the rhino, avoiding the undead guard's blow from behind as he drove his own sword into the larger mammal's stomach. With a twist, he pulled that sword upwards, spilling the rhino's blood and guts onto his legs. Even as the rhino fell, he brought his blade back to parry the wolf's sword. "Why won't you die?" he growled at the wolf who should have been dead.

Shots rang out and the guard's head seemed to explode into bloody gore. "They can't die!" Terry yelled to the Sheriff as the human pulled out his rifle's empty magazine and loaded a fresh one. "You're going to have to cut their arms and legs off to stop them!"

Carnage littered Sue's path through the courtyard, she left broken and battered bodies in her wake. It was more than the few remaining guards could handle and they threw their weapons to the ground in surrender. Huffing she looked around and couldn't help but give a satisfied grin back towards Judy and Marian. Then she saw that a bloody rhino had shoved Marian aside and had now gripped Judy as he tried to choke the rabbit to death. With a roar, the dinosaur charged forward only to find that a human was there first.

Terry fired round after round into the large rhino who finally dropped the gray rabbit and turned towards him. The human tried to dodge as the guard charged him, but the beast's horn tore into him and lifted him from the ground. The pain in his chest was unbearable as he was driven back into a wall. He felt his spine snap and even as the rhino shook him, he reached into his vest and pulled out a grenade. With a curse, he pulled the pin and shoved the small bomb into his assailant's chest wound. The explosion shredded both the human and the rhino. From what remained of his head, he watched with his only remaining eye at the others around him.

Judy knelt by where the human had fallen, but she saw a shadow across the courtyard near the chapel door. It was a shadow of an owl watching her with unblinking eyes, slowly the apparition floated through the oak door. "Come on!" she called out the Marian. "I saw the goddess and she is leading us this way."

The vixen followed her as she entered into the chapel and Sue squeezed through the ornate doors and into the tall gothic sanctuary inside.

There was the sound of the fluttering of wings and both Marian and Judy saw that the shadow was leading them down into the catacombs. "Courage, sister!" the vixen said as she gripped her spear while she followed Judy towards the stairs which led down into the darkness below. Behind her, Sue could only watch because she was too large to follow.

Inside of the castle, Robin Hood grimaced at the arrow which had pinned the fox against the wooden door behind him. "Alas Johnny, this isle's greatest archer hath been slain by an arrow," he dramatically said to Little John as the bear carefully pulled him free. "Such irony."

"Rob…" the large bear sadly began, but tears overcame him as he held his friend in his massive arms.

"Tell fair Marian that I loved her," the fox sadly said and then he frowned. "Forsooth good friend, for one laid low by yon arrow why am I still living?"

"Maybe he missed your heart?" the bear hopefully said as he laid his ear to his smaller friend's chest. "Nope, I don't hear a heartbeat."

"Ah, Johnny?" Robin tapped the bear on his arm. "You know that guardsmammal, the deer with the bow who shot me?"

"Yeah, I broke his neck."

"Then why is he standing over there by the column?"

"GAHHEBFFF!" a voice tried to speak, but the words came out garbled. The bear stood up and saw the deer staggering around, with his head twisted unnaturally backward.

"Yeah, Rob this isn't right," Little John said as the supposedly dead fox sat up.

"I doth think he tis trying to say something?" Robin Hood added as he pointed at the deer. "Mayhap if you try to twist his head back the other way he could talk?"

With a sigh, the bear walked over and grabbed the deer by his horns. Then with a grunt, he twisted and there was an auditable cracking noise as the head returned almost to a normal position. "Thank you", the deer's voice spoke in a harsh whisper. "Is it too late to surrender?" Suddenly the head flopped down. "Oh, my aching neck!"

"I'm sorry, but you did try to kill my best friend," Little John replied he turned to see the fox had stuck one of his digits into the hole that the arrow had left in his chest in an effort to stem the flow of blood. "Come on you two, let's go find out what is going on?"

Underneath the grand cathedral, both Judy and Marian descended into the semidarkness of the catacombs. The wispy shadow continued to beckon them onwards towards the mysterious sandstone caverns which were still further below. "Stay back!" a frightened voice called from the darkness and then suddenly they saw King John racing past them and up the stairs. "Guards! Sir Hiss! Someone help me, I command it!" he screamed as the coward fled upwards. The thin lion in the ornate robe desperately raced into the sanctuary, where he skidded to a stop and trembled in fear when he saw the toothy dragon before him. "Noooo!"

With a snap of her teeth, Sue bit off the king's head and began to chew. The lion's body fell backward as the dinosaur gave a little whimper, finally using her tongue, she dislodged what was stuck between her teeth and with great relief, she spat out a very bent gold royal crown. "Taste bad," she softly growled.

Inside the catacombs, Marian used some flint and steel which she had found to ignite a touch hanging on the wall and then removing it, she led Judy into the cold dank darkness as they followed a wisp of unnatural light further downward into what the old druids once called Merlin's Cavern.


	20. Heart of Darkness

**Chapter 20: Heart of Darkness**

* * *

**"May you get everything you want, but nothing that you need."**

\- Ancient curse

**Judy and Marian continue their quest for the Holy Grail in the caverns under Nottingham. **

* * *

**Earth 616 **

It was there when the universe was created, along with the others who called themselves Eternity, Infinity, and Death. The creature who was the manifestation of Oblivion watched as all of his reality became unraveled. At first, it reveled in what was passing until it suddenly realized that it too was in danger of the fate which was befalling all around him. "These powers are beyond you," a firm studious voice spoke from next to it and the creature turned to see the smaller form of Egma, one of the Watchers, standing nearby. The race which called themselves the Watchers was one of the oldest species in the universe committed only to observing and compiling all knowledge. "For this is more powerful than even you."

Oblivion frowned at the lesser being, as it too watched the nothingness consume everything. "What good is having all the knowledge of the universe now little one?" it bitterly asked Egma.

"Is this not what you've wanted?" the Watcher asked back. "You have finally obtained what you sought."

"Then why am I afraid?" Oblivion asked as it began to fade, but the Watcher had already been consumed by the darkness. True oblivion continued its unstoppable course.

* * *

**Nottingham 1215**

The tunnel had been hewed out of the multicolored layers of sandstone and lead downwards from the cathedral's crypt. Holding the flaming torch high in her left paw and a wicked-looking spear in her right, Marian lead a small gray rabbit named Judy further into the stygian darkness which threatened to encompass them. The flames shimmered upon the vixen's silvery oversized coat of chain mail and highlighted her reddish-orange pelt of fur, making her appear to be the very image of a valiant war maiden. The unnatural light which had beckoned them earlier to follow had now vanished. Sniffing the air, the vixen's fur bristled at the smell ahead. "What's wrong?" Judy whispered from behind her.

"I don't know? I smell something odd ahead," Marian answered as she peered around with fear. The tunnel led them down into very bowels of Mother Earth towards the fabled Merlin's Cave, where the old stories said that the ancient powerful wizard, who was once the tutor of King Arthur, was imprisoned within a crystal cave.

"Wait!" Judy softly called out and Marian glanced back to see that the rabbit's long ears were standing erect as she froze.

"What? Do you hear something?"

"A call or high pitched sound."

"Tis the light!" something hissed from beyond the flames weak brightness. Marian stared into the shadows ahead and blinked in surprise as she saw a pair of red eyes looking back at her. "It hath been centuries since such a light hath come here."

"Who are you?" the vixen demanded as she held the spear ahead of her.

"A child of the dark," whatever it was answered her question. There was a sudden fluttering of wings.

"A bat!" Judy laughed in relief as the brown ball of fur unfolded her leathery looking wings. "You scared us."

"That twas nay my intentions, good lady," the bat called out as it landed on a ledge. "Art thou lost? For surely no sane surface dweller would dareth wander into the labyrinth below?"

"We followed a guide," Marian answered as she looked further down the tunnel. She did not see the light which had previously led them this far, all just pitched darkness ahead.

"I hath seen nor heard anyone cometh this way before ye," the bat answered. She was staring at the two intruders with what Judy could only call amusement. "For thou art surely doomed without such a guide."

"Do you know the way?" Marian quickly asked. "Can you be our guide?"

"Alas, I hath never been farther than here," the bat admitted with a shake of her little head. "Tis blasphemy for any of my kind to fly further downward."

"Where is the rest of your colony?" Judy interjected as she looked around into the flickering shadows. "I've never known a bat who didn't belong to a colony before?" Then the rabbit's ears fell when she added, "Except those exiled for crimes or illness."

"Twas the foaming mouth plague which claimeth my colony," the small bat sadly said. "I had it, but barely survived and now I am alone."

"Rabies," Judy sighed. "We call that rabies where I am from."

"The foaming mouth plague is a terrible way to perish," Marian sadly added. "It has claimed may a villager."

Judy shook her head in pity as she looked up towards the bat on the ledge and then frowned at what she saw behind the small creature. "You have got to be kidding me?" she said in surprise. "That can't be what I think it is, can it?"

"What do you see?" the vixen asked as she peered at where the rabbit was looking. "What is that?"

The rabbit didn't answer, but had scurried over and found a dusty black string looking object along the base of the cavern wall. She picked it up, shaking the sand from what was revealed to be a cord, and began to follow it back towards where they had just come.

"You're going the wrong way!" Marian called out as she watched Judy follow the black string towards something on the wall.

"The elders said that twas one of Merlin's inventions," the bat said as she fluttered to another ledge. "He left it here generations ago, back when good King Arthur ruled the land. None of us knew what it did."

Judy gave a leap as she gripped something on the wall, it looked like an old handle, and with a firm yank, she pulled it down. Immediately the tunnel lit up with bright unnatural light which was almost as bright as the sun.

"Gahhh!" the bat screamed as she covered her eyes with her wings.

"Sorry!" Judy called out as she raced towards the source of the light and leaped up onto the ledge where it was mounted. She gripped the object, gave it a twist and it went dark once again where they were standing.

"Is that a magical crystal?" Marian asked as she walked closer to what Judy was holding.

"No it's called a LED lightbulb and it's made from glass," the rabbit laughed in relief. "I think there is more to this Merlyn than the stories tell us?"

"Then it tis surely powered by great magic," the vixen said as she marveled how the tunnel ahead was suddenly brightly illuminated. "It must be very powerful ancient magic at that!"

"Technology," Judy corrected her. "But just how it is still getting electricity after all this tie is a mystery to me?"

"Magic!" Marian repeated as she set the flaming torch down and gripped her spear tighter. Her ears were laid back and her canine teeth were clenched together as if she was expecting some hell-born demon to charge down the tunnel towards them.

"There is only one way to find out!" Judy called out as she began walking towards the next shining blub. "Come on!"

The rabbit cautiously walked down the tunnel towards the light, her nose twitched with concern as she stepped. "What is wrong?" Marian asked as the vixen followed right behind her.

"I just have this feeling that I'm in an old Indiana Jones movie," Judy replied with a nervous chuckle. "I'm expecting a trap, like arrows shooting from the wall or a large rolling rock trying smash us."

"What is a…movie? Surely, it sounds very dangerous."

"Never mind, just watch where you step," just as the rabbit said this, there was a clicking sound and Judy bound backward through the air and into the vixen, almost knocking the both of them down.

There was a brief pfft sound from the sides of the wall and then a voice boomed out a command, "Turn back or face the wrath of the all-powerful Merlin!"

Judy's ears were erect as she listened, but the voice was now silent. She slowly stepped forward and found that there was a switch plate on the cave's floor and then that there were stick looking objects which had been stuck into holes drilled into the sides of the sandstone walls. Carefully, she pulled one out and held it up tried to read the much-faded writing printed on the sides. "This is some kind of road flare rigged to set off when I stepped on the plate," she sighed as she showed it to the vixen. "I guess they went bad after all the years they were placed here?"

"Is it a magic stick?" Marian asked in confusion.

"No, it's from the future," Judy replied as she set the flare back down. "As I said, this Merlin isn't who you think he is. We need to be more careful from now on."

"Odd times we are living in," the vixen sighed. "Let us find the Holy Chalice before it is too late."

Further down into the caverns they followed the lights. Multiple trails led off one direction or another and both the rabbit and vixen quickly understood why the bat called where they were going a labyrinth. But they hoped that the lights which they were following would lead them to their final goal. Even as the vixen stepped forward, there was a rumbling sound as dust fell from overhead.

Judy stood there with her ears erect for a moment just listening before she yelled in panic, "Run!"

Marian dove forward just as the ceiling above them began to crash down and darkness engulfed them.

Panting in the dark, the vixen reached around feeling in the rubble for the rabbit. "I'm okay, I just can't see anything," she heard Judy whimper. "You foxes have better night vision, so can you see anything at all?"

"No," Marion answered as she found the doe's paw. "But I think the cave collapsed behind us."

They stood huddled together in the darkness, afraid that they were trapped.

Above in the chapel, Robin Hood and Little John came to a halt when the saw the great dragon standing in the cathedral's huge sanctuary. Behind the fearsome beast was the still twitching body of a scrawny lion in royal red robes.

"Hey Rob?" the bear in a green tunic called. Little John had leaned over and snatched up a rather bent looking object which he held towards the fox. "I guess we found King John or at least what is left of him?"

Robin pulled his right paw digit from inside his wound, causing a stream of blood to spill out onto his already stained tunic as he took the mangled crown from the bear's large paw. "OO-De-Lally, King John shall vex this good land more!" the fox proclaimed.

"Blimey, you can almost see right through his chest!" a voice said from behind them. Robin turned to see that Tigger was standing there next to the Sheriff of Nottingham, the noble wolf's sword blade was stained red.

"Where is Marian and her companion, the rabbit?" An older she-wolf dressed in rags asked and despite her unkempt condition, she gave off an undeniable aura of nobility

Robin Hood snatched his hat from his head and slightly bowed to the she-wolf. "My dear Lady of Nottingham, I think she went into the catacombs below."

"Then why are you standing around here bleeding on the carpets?" she replied. "If I was you, I'd follow to make sure that she was safe."

"Here!" the wolf said as he handed the fox his sword. "You'll need more than a bow in the caverns below."

The sword was too heavy for the valiant fox, and he struggled to hold it upright as he gave the knight a determined nod. Suddenly a large paw pulled the blade from his own paws and Robin looked up to see Little John give him a wink. "Here Rob try this instead," the bear handed him a large long knife which in the smaller animal's paw looked as if it was a short sword. "Now come on and let's find your girlfriend before she gets into trouble."

"Marian is nay my girlfriend, she tis my wife!" Robin objected as he ran to catch up with the lumbering bear.

* * *

**Both the characters Oblivion and ****Egma the Watcher, along with Earth 616, belong to Marvel Comics. **_(I do not own the rights to Marvel Comics or any of its characters. This story was written solely for the reader's enjoyment and without any profitable purposes. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious.) _


	21. The Crystal Cave

**Chapter 21: The Crystal Cave**

* * *

"**Not all those who wander are lost."**  
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

**Oblivion continues its path of destruction while its creator Ricky is still stuck in a tree. Meanwhile Judy and Marian continue their quest. **

* * *

**An Alternate Earth**

"Madam President," the aide said as he handed a plain manila folder to the heavyset woman in the light blue pantsuit sitting behind an ornate vintage oak wood desk. "Your poll numbers are still holding in the lower forties, despite the continued support of most of the major news networks. There is also another request by the House Intelligence Committee chairman to have members of your Pandemic Task Force testify over your handling of the COVID-19 response."

"It's those idiots over at Fox News are always stirring up the Republicans and those in the vast right-wing conspiracy over my refusal to shut down travel from China before early March," the President snapped in anger. "Someone should have told me that it was going to get this bad!"

Two of the aides briefly looked at each other, they knew that she had been briefed as early as January but she didn't want to be labeled as being xenophobic and so she allowed air travel to continue unabated. Then there was also the massive shortage of essential medical gear because it had not been restocked during the previous administration, many of who were responsible still held key positions in hers. Governors had been frantically calling for supplies, but they were not forthcoming because of her insistence that FEMA would do all the purchasing for the entire nation. All this just had to be happening during an election year, but at least this time she didn't have to face some loud-mouthed real-estate developer from New York as she did in 2016.

"Where's my husband?" the President curtly asked.

"On the phone, he's working on another lucrative deal between your family's not for profit foundation and the Haitian government."

"Just keep him away from the interns."

"You've got a CNN interview at ten this morning."

"I'll take no more questions about the Impeachment. That is over with and so you need to make sure that the reporter knows that!"

"It's Jim and he knows the boundaries we've set, he's dependable and won't cross them. He'll just be asking about any successes that we have had with slowing down the virus and about the news from Iran."

"Have the numbers come down yet? That idiotic governor of New York may be a Democrat, but he has screwed the pooch on this and his state's death rate is making me look bad."

"Madam President, we have a situation!" a young officer in an Air Force uniform called out as he hurried into the Oval Office. "NASA is on line one."

"Look I'm busy, so this better be good," the President curtly answered the phone. "What do you mean that the stars are just going dark?"

No matter who sat in the White House, oblivion could not be stopped.

* * *

**Zootopia 1925**

The alligator seemed to have settled down below the tree, although he was keeping an eye on the tasty looking treats who were clinging to the branches above. "Doesn't this thing ever sleep?" a small rat named Fidget asked the others. "Surely it has to be sleeping, we've been up here for days?"

"Where is HE?" the personification of Evil asked. "Didn't HE send you to get that stupid pocket watch?"

Ricky settled down in a more comfortable spot on the limb as he looked towards the swamp. "I don't understand what happened?" he said in a soft sigh. "I remember finding the watch out there in the swamp where the cops dumped its owner and I waded into the waters to find it. Then I spoke with someone, I can't seem to remember who that was, but I threw the watch over here into the woods so my father and mother wouldn't find it."

"So I'm stuck in this damn tree with a once all-powerful brat who once tossed away a watch because he has mommy and daddy issues?" Evil scoffed. "This is just great!"

* * *

**Nottingham 1215**

With all of the tank's power, Nick was still confined within its mighty steel body and unable to cross the moat into Nottingham Castle to find out if Judy was safe. "Damn it!" Sam cursed as he looked over at Leroy. "We have no idea what is going on inside and neither Terry or Tony have returned."

The tank's driver was sitting on the turret next to the tank's commander. With a sigh he looked over at Matterson who shrugged as he reached over and tossed Leroy a combat rifle and several magazines. "Well boss, there is only one way to find out," Leroy said as he stood up and loaded a magazine into the rifle.

"We can't leave the tank undefended," Sam protested.

"We have a haunted tank!" Matterson scoffed as he leaped onto the ground. "I figured that Nick can button up, so I've already loaded a HEAT shell into the cannon and reloaded the coaxial machine gun. If any of those animals come too close he will be ready, besides they are a little bit primitive and I don't think they would have an idea how to even open a hatch."

"Don't leave me alone!" Nick protested over the radio.

"Do you want us to find out what happened to your little bunny friend or not?" Leroy replied as he slipped to the ground.

Nick knew he had no choice but to stay put while the three humans left him behind.

Little John charged down the steps into the crypt below castle's cathedral, almost leaping from the stairs onto the stone floor below as the bear glared around him as if he expected some long-dead wraith to attack. His ears flicked when he heard Robin's voice behind him and realized his fear was not so silly, for his best friend behind him should have been dead. Like all who lived in these troubled times, he had heard stories of revenants or the animated corpses of those who had perished. The good Friar Tuck had once told them that a tale he had heard from a monk, who knew a priest that once knew the Abbot of Burton. The holy abbot swore that the corpses of two runaway peasants had returned from the grave and bedeviled those still living by wandering the streets carrying their own wooden coffins.

Robin Hood was no revenant, he just wasn't dead for there was no death to claim his soul. The fox swiftly joined him wielding his large long knife as if it was a short sword. "I hath no idea where my Marian went?" the fox sighed. "It seemth that my sniffer tis no longer working like it used to."

"Yeah Rob, a large arrow through your chest might be the reason," Little John answered as he looked around at the various tombs which surrounded them.

"Don't let the Sheriff entomb me down here," the fox suddenly but softly said. "I don't understand why I am not dead, but surely this cannot last like this forever. Promise me, Johnny, that when death doth catch up with this sly fox, that thou wilt bury me in the good green sod of Sherwood Forest."

"It would be an honor to bury you down here with all of these knights and their ladies. After all, Rob, you are a Loxley. You are a fox of noble blood."

"Nay good friend, my nobility tis long gone and I'm a child of the forest now."

"Come on Rob, we can discuss this after we save Marian," the bear answered as he pulled at the opening he found. "They went this way."

Down the tunnel of sandstone, a fox and a vixen clung together in the stygian darkness which surrounded them and they were afraid. But after several years of being a rabbit in the police force, Judy knew how to suppress her fears. "What are you doing?" Marian shakenly asked when she felt the rabbit push away from her. Her paws reached out to find her companion, but she found only empty air. "Judy?"

"It's okay, I'm just trying to find the electrical cord to the lights," Judy answered as her paws moved along the sandy floor. "The rockfall must have cut the cord and cause the power to go out, but the line must still be here somewhere."

The vixen knelt and reached around, her paw touched something soft. "Marian, that's my tail!" the bunny laughed. "You don't know how many times Nick has tried to put his paws where you just did! Ah, there it is!"

"Do you love him?" Marian asked as he gripped her unseen friend's arm.

"Yes," Judy softly answered.

"Take it from me that if you love Nick, you should let him know."

"What happened between you and Robin? I thought you two loved each other, the legends say it was true love."

"He left me when King Richard called and never returned," Marian sadly sighed. "I expected him to only be gone for a few months, but those months turned into years and I grew bitter. Finally, I felt betrayed and abandoned."

"Didn't he write to you?"

"Robin Hood write!" the vixen giggled. "He can barely sign his own name, like many nobles he does not know how to read or write."

"Really I just figured if he since he was the Duke of Loxley he'd have learned?"

"Robin is no duke! No, he is only lord of the small village of Loxley."

The two ladies were crawling along the dark ground while Judy followed the electrical cord she had found. Her ears were erect as she tried to hear anything in the darkness, the vixen was stalking behind her and she fought down the primeval fear that her species had of the darkness. Then she felt her ears hit something in front of her and whatever it was felt smooth to her paws. She tapped it and it sounded hollow.

"What is it?" Marian asked as she joined the rabbit in front of the strange wall. It was smooth and without a blemish, obvious not stone. Her claws scratched into whatever was in front of them, blocking their continued path.

"I don't know?" Judy answered as she continued to feel along the odd wall in front of her. "Maybe there is some way around it or a door?" Her paws fumbled across the cold slick material until suddenly there was a loud bang and both of the explorers stumbled back away in surprise when what appeared to be flames burst before them.

"Beware!" a voice called out from the darkness. "You have trespassed where no mortal is allowed to go! Flee before the dragon's breath consumes you!" Before them appeared a huge fierce dragon that was seemingly looking down upon them with great malice.

Judy heard Marian's screams at the sight before them and the brave rabbit was also scared for a moment before she walked closer to the beast blocking their way. The dragon was huge with green scaly skin and great wings, its mouth was filled with sharp white teeth. "_Revenge! Revenge! King under the Mountain is dead and where are his kin that dare seek revenge? Girion Lord of Dale is dead, and I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep, and where are his sons' sons that dare approach me? I kill where I wish and none dare resist. I laid low the warriors of old and their like is not in the world today. Then I was but young and tender. Now I am old and strong, strong, strong, Thief in the Shadows!_" the dragon snarled out in a dreadful voice.

Marian almost fainted when the great beast spoke, but she felt Judy's paw seize hers. "I thought I recognized that dragon, it is the image of Smaug from a movie I once saw! Somehow it's being projected before us? Reaching out her other paw towards the fire, she touched the old clear glass-like material before them. "Feel the wall, the flames have no heat and it seems that they are not real either!"

The wide-eyed vixen reached a trembling paw out towards the flames and then frowned when she realized that she was not being burned. "It's magic," Marian whimpered.

"Yeah, Hollywood magic!" Judy snapped in agitation. "This Merlin is playing games with us!" She moved her paw along the wall until she found something, a small button. Pushing it, her efforts were rewarded with a clicking sound and an opening appeared in the wall. Without hesitation, the rabbit stepped forward and with a slight grunt pulled the door open and stepped inside. There was a flickering of lights and then the bulbs overhead cast a bright light to show that she had entered a large room made from some kind of cloudy white Plexiglas.

"Tis Merlin's Crystal Chamber," Marian muttered in awe as she looked around her.

"Merlin was a fraud, a trickster from the future!" the rabbit snapped as she glanced around the room. There were a number of boxes lying around and what seemed like a laboratory. Her eyes were drawn to a large olive drab green object and walking closer she read what was stenciled on its side in yellow. "What is a self-generating nuclear battery?" she asked more to herself than to the vixen.

Around them, the room was a mess as if the occupant had left it in a hurry. Marian walked over and touched a cloak made from black feathers hanging from a peg on the wall. "Tis Merlin's cloak," she softly said. "They say that it gave him the power to change into a raven." Next to the black cloak were a brown monk's robe and a white robe made from a light white colored material which the vixen had never felt before.

"That's a medical lab coat," Judy said as she joined the fox. With a grunt she hopped up and pulled the cotton garment from its peg, turning it around she read a name badge and a patch above the badge. "Doctor Jeremy Whitehorn with Project Chronos."

"Judy!" Marian called out as she held a scroll that was lying on a nearby table. "This is the history of Arthur in writing!"

The rabbit joined her at the table and began to peruse the other documents scattered on the table. "These are reports, interviews with Nick and our supposed son Ricky," Judy became quiet as she picked up another yet another sheet of paper and read it.

"What's the matter?" the vixen asked as she looked over at the now still rabbit.

"This is a report about me and it says I was stuck in time?"

"Stuck in time, what does that mean?"

"I don't know?" Judy snapped back, there was a hint of fear in her voice which was quickly replaced with a tone of renewed determination. "We need to get back to work and find that chalice!"

"The Holy Grail," Marian spoke in a reverent tone. "Do you think it is here?"

* * *

**Smaug is the creation of the incredible author J.R.R. Tolkien and his projected speech is from Peter Jackson's wonderful cinematic adaptation of **_**The Hobbit**__._ _(I do not own the rights to the story The Hobbit or the movie, or any of its characters. This story was written solely for the reader's enjoyment and without any profitable purposes. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this story are fictitious.)_


	22. Expectations

**Chapter 22: Expectations**

* * *

"**Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect."**  
― Margaret Mitchell

**Judy and Marian frantically search for the holy grail even as Robin begins to give up hope. **

* * *

**Atlanta 2020**

Smoke and flames brightened the early morning darkness while the rioters continued their way down Peachtree Street. Behind them, they left a trail of buildings vandalized and looted, while the police and National Guard slowly tried to contain any further damage caused by the anger or frustration of some and the mindless urge for destruction by others. Red and blue lights flashed as the crowd continued its now unreasonable rampage, they even turned on the members of the fire department who had responded to damp out the fires they left behind. Overhead no one saw the darkness which bloated out the moon above. Neither the anger nor the outrage of the rioters or the valiant efforts of the police could stop oblivion as it descended upon the chaos.

Atlanta was a city which had arisen like the phoenix from the ashes of its past, it was the very heart of the civil rights movement, but now it had seemingly lost its way as the legitimate protests against injustice and bigotry turned violent. The fools below reviled in their self-righteousness as they tried to justify their abandonment of the ideals of peaceful protest which they were taught by Martin Luther King and Joseph Lowery. Little did this matter when all were consumed by the darkness of nothingness.

* * *

**Nottingham 1215 **

The people of Nottingham had once tried to protest, but King John had brutally suppressed those who express even the mildest discontent by using the hangmammal's noose or the blood-stained executioner's ax. Now Robin Hood had returned, as like in the days of old, but this time he had allied himself with his onetime advisory, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The small ragged group of rebels had arrived with a magical metal thing with spit destructive fire and a huge dragon. The king's royal army didn't stand a chance against such advisories and it soon broke.

Deep inside the bowels of the limestone ground which held up the foundations of the town above, the walls which surrounded a red fox vixen and a gray furred rabbit were silvery-white, opaque like they were constructed by white opal. Marian had called the room Merlyn's Crystal Chamber where the folk legends told that the mighty wizard had been entombed by his lover Niniane. She had seduced Merlin into teaching her his magic and then she turned upon her lover by sealing him within the cave forever. What the vixen had found this day was far stranger than any legend she had been told.

Judy had never seen the wall's material before, nor did the rabbit doe recognize the power source that was used to illuminate the room in which they were standing. However, she was familiar with the white plastic portable tables which still had price stickers from Targoat. Jammed under those foldable tables were boxes of what appeared to be junk and the table tops were piled with even more junk and papers. "Our Merlyn seemed to be a bit of a hoarder," she said as she pulled out one of the boxes and began to rummage through its contents. Carefully, she set a Wooferly PPK on the table and checked to see if it was loaded. The pistol had been in the box, but the ammunition was nowhere to be found. A familiar looking ZPD issued tranquilizer gun was also in the box, along with a dozen darts. She stuck that weapon under the makeshift rope belt which she wore around her waist to keep her grimy worn tunic from sagging.

"There is nothing in this box either!" Marian sighed as she dumped the box that she had looked through onto the chamber floor. She had no idea at what most of the gadgets were that laid in a heap before her foot paws.

"Do you have any idea of what this holy grail is supposed to look like?" the rabbit asked as she dug into another box.

"My favorite story was that it was silver and gold, with red rubies. But there is another older legend which says it was pure white, like the newly fallen snow in the winter, and had the emblem of ancient god-king or the Lord of the Woods engraved upon it in green. It was truly a cup worthy of the gods and it contained a drink which restored Arthur in his darkest days, rejuvenated him from the bloody flux before his last great battle."

"Keep searching, maybe it's somewhere around here?"

Not too far away, Robin Hood stood before a jumbled heap of stones that blocked their path through the tunnel. The fox looked frantically around as he tried to find some way to crawl through, but there didn't seem to be an opening. "Well Rob, this looks like the end of the line!" Little John sighed. The bear held the flickering torch higher and the flames cast shadows upon the fallen stones and boulders before them. "I hate to say it, but they must have been entombed by the rockfall."

"Gods no!" the fox frantically called out. "Not my Marian. I loved her Johnny, how will I ever live without her?"

The large brown bear in the green tunic bit his tongue. He wanted to point out that his best friend was dead already or at least should be, but he did not. "Maybe they got through before the tunnel collapsed?" he said instead. "We can only hope."

"Alas, I am losing hope," the fox sighed as he sat down on a stone. "Tis this the way that a legend shalt perish?"

"It does not always have to be about you!" Little John finally snapped back in an exasperated tone. "Rob, there are the townspeople in the streets above and those who follow you which you need to think about. All of what we have done today is to make life better for those who were downtrodden by King John's unjust rule. Ever since we left our homes in the service of the late King Richard, more and more your legend has grown and you have become lost in the glory of that legend. You have forgotten who Robert of Loxley was…who you were when you first took to the green woods of Sherwood to fight for those oppressed. Remember what you used to tell us at night around the fire?"

"The old code of Arthur," Robin said in shame. "That might doth not make right, but that right makes might."

"And…" the bear asked with a grin.

"Faint hearts never win fair maiden?" the fox chuckled as he shrugged his green tunic clad shoulders.

"No, you idiot!" Little John laughed as he lovingly shoved his best friend's arm.

"Ah my valiant friend, we did have the merriest menagerie in the world who kept us company in the woods."

"You're avoiding my question, Rob."

"I missed those days of old," the fox continued. "Now thou are old and I am dead."

"For a dead fox, you sure blab a lot," Little John laughed as the bear once again studiously studied the wall of rocks and rubble which blocked their way.

"His words were that all of us are born to live free," a voice squeaked out from the darkness to answer to the bear's question. There was the soft flutter of wings and the bear and fox saw a small bat appear.

Above them in the castle's courtyard, three heavily armed soldiers of the United States Army entered and carefully made their way past a line of kneeling animals wearing the red and gold tunics of the King's Guard. One of the animals was a black stallion in armor, his hoofs clutching his detached bloody head in his lap as he sat in the grass. "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!" Leroy muttered the words from an old movie as he observed the strange sights around him.

It was then they saw the still twitching blood heap of what was once their fellow brother-in-arms.

"Crap!" was all Sam could say as he picked up Terry's dog tags.

Far below them, inside of Merlin's Cavern, Judy finally sat down at one of the tables and rubbed her eyes in frustration. They had rummaged through every box they had found, but there was still no sign of a magical chalice. She shoved aside an old coffee travel mug that was sitting there and after looking at it briefly, she gave a long sigh. There was a large bottle of Metronidazole tablets next to the cup and several large empty plastic bottles of sports drink, along with empty IV bags.

"What's the matter?" Marian asked as she too sat down in exasperation.

"That mug just reminds me of how much Nick likes his coffee," the rabbit answered as she picked up the cup and looked it over. "He used to make us stop at Snarlsbuck to pick up…" Judy grew silent as she held the cup higher. "What did you say, that the grail looked like?"

"White as the newly fallen snow…" Marian began again.

"With a green god wearing a crown upon it…" Judy cut her off as she held the mug even higher and looked at the very white mug with the green stylized depiction of a water buffalo's head upon it. "You've got to be kidding me?"

* * *

**Leroy quotes from **_**The Wizard of Oz.**_

**Metronidazole is sometimes used in the treatment of infections, ****** such as dysentery,** caused by bacteria or parasites. The sports drink and IV bags would help rehydrate someone who had that illness. The bloody flux is an old name for dysentery. **


	23. Robin Hood to the Rescue

**Chapter 23: Robin Hood to the Rescue **

* * *

"**I sense that the road to Heaven is paved with dashed hopes." - **Michael Leunig

* * *

**Beyond Time**

Oblivion had almost consumed everything but in the stygian darkness, which was nothingness, there were still two bright lights that defiantly glowed with a hope that all was not yet lost.

* * *

**Nottingham 1215**

"With a green god wearing a crown upon it…" Judy cut Marian off as she held the mug even higher and looked at the very white mug with the green stylized depiction of a water buffalo's head upon it. "You've got to be kidding me?"

"The green god is painted on it!" Marian cried out with joy.

"This is only a travel mug from the future!" Judy grumbled as she shoved it aside, it almost toppled from the table, but the vixen was quick and she seized it. "We have to be missing something!" the rabbit snapped as she stood up and walked around the chamber yet again. "This holy grail has to be something special."

"But this…" the vixen began to object, but then sighed as she clasped the mug safety in her paws. "You must have faith, Judy."

"In the old stories it is Sir Galahad, Lancelot's son who finds the Grail," Judy said to herself as she paced back and forth.

"So, that evening, when all were gathered about the Round Table, each knight in his own siege, suddenly there was heard a crash of thunder, so mighty that the hall trembled, and there flashed into the hall a sun-beam, brighter far than any that had ever before been seen; and then, draped all in white samite, there glided through the air what none might see, yet what all knew to be the Holy Grail," Marian quoted from the old story Le Morte d'Arthur.

"Well, we haven't found anything like that!" Judy sighed as she shoved more of the junk aside. "Maybe it isn't a real grail or cup? Maybe it is just some type of special box or something?"

"Faith, Judy. You must have faith, for do you really think the goddess led us down here to Merlin's Crystal Cavern for no reason? You must have the faith of those great knights who quested for the grail before. Brave knights such as Sir Galahad the Valent, Sir Percival the Faithful, and Sir Bors the Mighty."

"Wasn't Sir Bors killed by the Wilding of Caerbannog?" Judy asked. "A mighty rabbit warrior."

"He was, but that warrior was slain by the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch which a virtuous unknown knight brought," Marian said as she rummaged through Merlin's papers and found a drawing. "Here is his image with the holy item!"

Judy took the page which the vixen had thrust towards her and looked down at the long rabbit-eared fox looking knight. "That is a drawing of my son with a hand grenade!"

"Yes, he holds the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch!"

"I wish we had one of those right now," the rabbit sighed as she sat the page down. "Maybe we could blow our way through that rockfall?" Her ears suddenly shot up when she heard pounding on the wall. "Who can that be?"

The vixen just looked at her with scared wide eyes.

Gripping the tranquilizer gun, Judy approached the chamber's door.

Earlier and on the other side of the fallen rubble, there sat a dejected-looking red fox in a green tunic who was watching a large brown bear poking at the rocks. "Alas poor Marian," Robin Hood said. "I should have never left her Johnny! I should have hidden in Sherwood Forest again until King Richard forgot about me."

"Rob, you are hard to forget!" the bear grunted as he shoved at a boulder which didn't budge. "Besides, old Ricky played up to your vanity and you, my dear fox, have that in spades."

There was a flutter of small wings as the bat briefly landed near the bear. "There tis a tiny opening up upon the top of the pile," the bat softly said. "Mayhap if you shove those stones?"

"I don't see an opening?" Little John said as he climbed on the rocks.

"It tis there!" the bat replied. "My calls do not return from there."

"Thy bat ears art amazing," Robin said as he sat up and watched.

"Okay little buddy, let me give it a try," the bear grunted as he shoved. His efforts were rewarded by the sound of rubble falling and then a beam of bright light pierced the darkness. The bear shoved harder and more stones fell. "Well we have an opening, but I'll never get through that hole!"

"But Robin Hood can!" the bat proclaimed as he fluttered around in excitement. "Brave Robin must save fair Marian!"

"Fie, I shan't never fit in yon hole…" Robin protested, but Little John had reached over and grabbed him.

"Sure you will Rob, your mostly fur and fluff anyways," the bear snorted as he shoved the fox headfirst into the opening.

"I'm stuck!" the fox mumbled from within the hole. The bear reached in and shoved. "Watch thy paws, Johnny, that twas more than just my tail thou poked!"

After a few moments of wiggling, the fox worked himself through the stony opening and marveled at what he saw before him, for there was a bright opaque white crystal wall. With a grunt, he crawled out until he was free to tumble down the stones on the other side. Carefully he walked towards the wall and touched the strange smooth material.

"Rob?" Little John called out from behind him. "Rob, did you make it?"

"Aye, that I did," he called back. Then lifting his paw he knocked on the material before him.

Inside the chamber, Judy nodded for Marian to open the doorway. "Run when it opens, for the gods only know what creature waits outside," the doe said as she aimed her gun.

The vixen nodded back before she pulled the door open and then she screamed in surprise when she saw who was standing there. "Robin!" Marian cried out after she caught her breath.

"I hath come to save thee!" the fox tod triumphantly proclaimed as he put his paws to his hips and stood there with a grin.

With a sigh of relief, Judy lowered her pistol and shook her head. "Leave it to a fox to show up when you least expect him," she laughed. "For a moment, I thought you were Nick." Her ears dropped when she remembered that Nick was now dead and his ghost was haunting a tank. "Yeah, leave it to a fox…" she softly said again in a sad tone.

Marian however had launched herself into the tod's arms. "Oh Robin, I had no doubt you would come and save us!" she happily cried out as he hugged him, and then she stiffened when she realized that her usually warm tod just wasn't that warm, in fact, he was physically cold to her touch. Stepping back she gasped when she saw the hole in her husband's chest. "Robin?"

"Alas my love, I hath been slain," Robin softly said as he reached for her. "I should be dead, but I am not."

"Oh my love," Marian cried out as she embraced him again. Tears began to flow from her eyes as she clutched at him. "Oh my dear, dear Robin."

"Be brave my love," the tod softly said as he wrapped her in his arms again. "For despite all which fate hath thrown at me, I am here and so come now and be of good cheer. Didst thou finish thy quest?"

"There is no grail!" Judy bitterly answered. "Merlin had no magical cup, just some junk. We failed."

"Then we shalt go back up top and take counsel on what to do next," Robin replied as he began to guide Marian towards the door. "Mayhap thy goddess may come to guide thee yet again?"

Judy began to follow them out of the door, but for some reason, she reached over and picked up the green and white Snarlbucks travel mug. Maybe, it just gave her some comfort by being something which she knew from her far away future home?

Gently the fox helped the rabbit doe into the hole and Judy easily wiggled through the rocks only to find a pair of large brown bear paws reaching up to help her down at the other side. Little John carefully set her down on the ground before he reached up and helped Marian from the opening. "Ah Johnny!" a muffled voice called out from the hole. "I seemeth to be stuck!"

"Come on Rob, try wiggling some more," the bear called back with a grin. "Didn't you foxes used to dig dens?"

"Fie!" came a reply, followed by a few choice curses about bears and their sense of humor. Finally, with a grunt Little John reached into the hole and gripped the reddish-brown paws inside. With a firm tug, the bear pulled and the male fox, who was stuck inside, came free and tumbled down the stones, to land muzzle first into the dusty ground.

"Ow, even in death that doth hurt!" Robin groaned as he sat up in the dust. Finally, he crawled to his feet and took Marian's paw. "Come let us leave this foul place for it doth stink of sorcery."

"There is no sorcery here," Judy sighed. "There is just old junk, like this mug left by a time traveler."

Slowly they made their way by flickering torchlight back to the catacombs. As they climbed up the stairs and into the chapel, they saw that Sue was impatiently pacing back and forth. The creature that others called a dragon gave a huge sigh when she saw her two smaller friends and her head cocked slightly when she realized that they looked disappointed. "No find what look for?" she asked.

"There was no magical grail!, holy or unholy," Judy bitterly replied. "We only found junk like this." The rabbit held the coffee cup up towards the big T-Rex. "I guess it was already gone?"

The vixen placed a comforting paw on the rabbit's shoulder as Sue sniffed the cup and then softly nudged it with her huge head. The moment she touched the cup in Judy's paw, there was a flash of bright light.

"Marian!" Robin cried out in surprise when he realized that the rabbit, the vixen, and the dragon were gone!

There was screaming from outside and panicked yelling. Stumbling out of the cathedral's door, the fox looked upwards at what everyone was staring at. It seemed that the heavens themselves had gone dark and then the sun itself disappeared.

It the darkness of oblivion one of the two remaining lights twinkled briefly and then went out.

* * *

**The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, yep I had to go there. **


	24. Time Restored

**Chapter 24: Time Restored**

* * *

"**I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe."**

\- Dalai Lama

**When all seemed lost, there was hope for our heroes.**

* * *

**Beyond Time**

The darkness was almost complete and only one tiny dot of light defiantly glowed through the murky night which was oblivion.

* * *

**Zootopia 1925**

Judy lost her footing and fell with a splash into the water below her foot paws. "Where are we?" she heard Marian nervously ask as she clutched the white and green Snarlbucks coffee mug as if it was a weapon. "Why are we in a swamp?"

Towering above them both, Sue sniffed the air and then let out a small warning growl. "Toothy ones here," the T-Rex growled. "Beware, friends."

As Judy crawled back to her feet, she drew the tranquilizer gun and warily looked around. The sun was shining in the trees above them and the water around them was dark brown but still. There was the humming of an insect as it flew past. Then her ears shot up when she heard talking in the distance. "Someone is that way!" she said as she pointed her gun in a westerly direction.

No one in history could claim that a fully grown tyrannosaurs-rex was a stealthy creature in a swamp. Sue tried her best to be quiet as she waded through the water once her two friends had clamored up her back and onto her head. There was a hiss as a snake slithered through the muck to escape before Sue stepped out of the water and onto a gravel road. "Blood," she tried to whisper. "Smell blood here."

Judy looked down at the gravel and she could see some red stains in the puddles, someone indeed had bled upon this road. Her ears shot up when she heard the voices again. "In the woods," she said softly to Marian. "Someone is in the woods."

Sue lowered her massive head so they could hop off and the fox slipped after the rabbit into the underbrush, leaving their large friend behind. Finally, they found what they were seeking, the source of the voices. Clinging to branches in a huge tree were several strangely dressed rats, a human-looking creature, and someone who Judy suddenly recognized.

"We are stuck in this tree because you have mommy and daddy issues," the human complained to the long rabbit-eared fox above him. "I vote we toss one of those so-called time bandits down to the alligator and while his mouth is full, the rest of us can make a run for it."

"You are evil!" a rat with a single horn on his helmet yelled down.

"Of course I am!" the human called back. "After all Og, I am evil personified."

"I really screwed everything up, didn't I?" the fox with the long ears softly said as if he was talking to himself. "I let my anger get the best of me."

"Aw come on, that happens to everyone," another of the rats agreed. "It is just when you do it, you end everything."

The alligator below the tree stopped and slowly turned his head towards the trees.

"What is he up too now?" Evil asked as he gripped his branch tighter.

The gator suddenly launched towards whatever he saw, charging into the underbrush with jaws open. Moments later there was an earth-shaking roar and the lizard fled the other direction. "What was that all about?" Og asked.

"I don't believe I have ever heard an alligator scream in fear before?" Randall added as he leaned forward to watch.

There was a tremendous crashing noise and the snapping of small trees before Sue emerged from the woods, the sight of the dinosaur made everyone clinging to the tree either scream or whimper with terror. The large tyrannosaurus rex cocked her head in surprise at the small creatures before her. The rats, she chose to ignore as she looked over Ricky and Evil. Slowly leaning over she sniffed the creature known as Evil and drew her head back as if she smelled something unpleasant. "Skinks," she grumbled.

"Hey, I took a bath last week!" Evil yelled back in an offended tone.

"Smells like rotting meat," Sue responded with a disgusted snort.

"How dare…!" the humanoid creature began, but he quickly quieted when Sue leaned forward again and showed her teeth as she gave a low growl. "Rotting meat…right!" Evil quickly added.

Sue instead began sniffing Rick and then stepped back. "Smells like friend Judy," she said. The fox rabbit hybrid had pressed himself as far as he could manage against the tree trunk while he looked at the dinosaur with terror. "No eat," Sue added as she brought her huge muzzle closer and sniffed again.

"Look, big guy, we are here on official…" Fidget began to say, but he hesitated when Sue licked her chops.

"If you're going to eat anyone, he is bigger and juicier," Wally quickly added. "I'm to boney and scrawny to eat."

Sue just snorted at him before she turned her back to the tree and down towards the rabbit and vixen who had followed her.

Judy looked up into the tree at the long-eared fox. "They say you are my son," she called up to him. "They also say you caused all of this to happen."

"Mom?" was the reply she received from above as Ricky looked down at her. "I…I…I'm sorry."

"Well, are you going to sit there on that branch or are you going to climb down and hug your mother?" a voice called out from behind them and they turned to see a beautiful ewe standing there in a tight red sequined flapper's dress, she was holding a martini glass in her hoof. "You started all of this mess because of her and made me have to leave a swell party at Al Catpone's hotel."

"I figured you'd be at a party or something," Evil scoffed at the sight of the ewe. "At least you aren't wandering the desert in that undyed homespun robe of yours, unwashed and with that overgrown beard."

"Who are you?" Marian asked as she clutched the white Snarlsbuck mug in her paws.

Sue tilted her head in confusion, but she felt something radiating from this small creature and then she realized was a sense of peace.

"We got the watch you wanted boss!" Fidget called out. "We'd have brought it to you earlier, but we were stuck in this tree with an alligator trying to eat us." The small rat held up the pocket watch in triumph.

"Well, then little one, toss it down and you can go home," the sheep looking creature said before she drained her drink and the glass just disappeared. After she caught the watch, she snapped her hoof and the rats too disappeared. "There we go, now come on down Ricky and met your mother."

"Don't tell me this was all for a family reunion!" Evil sarcastically grumbled as he tried to shimmy down the trunk and fell with a grunt face-first onto the ground. "Ow!"

"Don't be such a grouch," the ewe laughed in a musical tone. "Why don't you go someplace else and do what you do best?"

"There isn't any place else to go!" Evil snapped as he stood up and wiped himself off. "That idiot destroyed everything but what is still here."

"Sorry," Ricky softly said as he dropped onto the weedy dirt. "I lost control and I…" He stopped speaking when he saw Judy had stepped forward and was now standing in front of him.

"You got what you wanted," the ewe sighed. "You were calling for me, no demanding for me to come. Now didn't I tell you to hug your mother?"

"You better do what she says boy," Evil suggested as the humanoid creature leaned against the tree. "She isn't used to not having her way. One time he…well, he's a she now…well, she flooded the earth, because…"

"Enough of that," the ewe snapped, at him before she turned back towards Ricky. "Now go on and give your mother a hug."

Rick leaned slightly down and wrapped his arms around Judy. He felt her warmth and smelled her scent. Tears began to run down his cheeks, as he felt her reach up and embrace him. "I was lost," he sniffled. "You were trapped in time when I was born and I could never free you, no matter how hard I tried. Then I went back to when it all began and threw the watch into the woods so you could never find it, freeing you from your fate."

"But you came back," Judy whispered as she kissed her son's tear-streaked cheek. "Why?"

"I was happy, in a tent with Nockotia," Rick answered. "Then the time travelers came and I was lost." Turning towards the ewe he glared at her. "Why did you do that to me, I was happy for once in that meadow with her?"

"I didn't do that," the ewe patiently answered. "You did that to yourself, time was still within you and you were still time that was bound."

"But now he destroyed everything," Evil interjected. "All of your creation."

"Just a little, but he can still repair everything," the ewe answered as she tossed the watch to the fox rabbit.

"I don't understand?" Rick called out as he caught the watch. Touching the watch, he felt the power of time flowing into him again, he was Aion reborn. Judy stepped back as her son's eyes crackled with golden lightning. "Still, how can I fix everything?"

"The vixen has the chalice," the ewe answered with a shrug and then turning to Judy, Marian, and Sue, she added. "Ladies I want you three to touch the cup. I need you three mothers to hold the chalice for him."

"You always did like that trinity thing," Evil chuckled as he watched.

"I'm not a mother?" Marian objected in a confused tone. "Robin and I never had any children, now I am too old."

"No eggs lived," Sue sadly added. "No babies."

"You will both be mothers once this is over," the mysterious ewe laughed and then smiled at Judy. "And as for you my little gray furred hero, your son is right in front of you."

Judy reached up and touched the white and green coffee mug which was in Marian's paws, Sue bent down and reached out to touch it with one of her claws. Nodding, the ewe looked over at Ricky. "Now reach inside. It's going to be a bit like Mary Poppins's magical bag, so just keep reaching as far as you can."

Ricky tried to stick his paw in the cup's opening and was surprised when it seemed to grow to accommodate his larger paw. He glanced at the ewe, who smiled at him and gave him an encouraging shooing motion. Further and further he dug and his arm was now inside, it had disappeared all the way to his shoulder. Then he felt something squirmy. "I feel something!" he said.

"Now PULL!" the ewe commanded.

With all of his might, Ricky pulled at whatever he was grasping, and then with a sudden pop, it shot out and began to fill all around him. There were stars, moons, and suns, all shooting upward and towards the heavens above.

"You backed up all of reality in a coffee mug?" Evil asked as he leaned forward in surprise.

"I had to store it someplace," the ewe laughed and the clapped with joy as she watched while everything began to unfold above them. Oblivion fled before the light as it spilled out everywhere, recreating what was once lost. "It is kind of like rebooting a computer."

"Who are you?" Marian asked again.

"I am Who I am," was the answer she got before all faded to white.

Everyone else was gone, leaving only Ricky kneeling at the foothoofs of the ewe in the middle of the woods. "I'm sorry," the fox rabbit sniffled as tears began to flow again.

"You know that I believe in redemption," came a soft answer and Ricky looked up to see that the ewe in the red sequenced dress had turned into a lamb in undyed woolen robes, there was a bright light creating a halo around her head. "You really don't want this power, do you?"

"No, I'm just too weak to handle it."

"You are stronger then you know, but still I will not force you to hold time within you. It is a heavy burden." Ricky shook his head as he looked towards the ground in shame. He felt the Holy Lamb reach down and she took the watch from his paws. It seemed that the power was flowing out of him yet again and he was no longer the god named Aion. "Still, now that you have restored everyone to where they belong, I think you should be given a little reward for trying."

Darkness came, but this time it was peaceful.


	25. Time after Time

**Chapter 25: Time after Time**

* * *

"**There is no real ending. It's just the place where you stop the story." **

– Frank Herbert

* * *

**Zootopia 2016 **

The beautiful ewe in the red jacket stood on the sidewalk eating her snow cone while she watched as the large black and white police cruiser, with the uniformed rabbit and fox sitting inside, roar off down the city street with its sirens blazing in pursuit of a speeding red muscle car. "Did you want one of these?" the personification of the Creator asked as she looked down at the black-furred ferret in the Goth looking clothing. "I truly believe that this is one of these mortal's greatest creations."

"Snow cones are one of their greatest creations?" Death scoffed as she casually leaned, almost as if she was pouting, against a nearby light pole. "So what was the real reason for all that drama you made us all go through?"

"First, I wanted Ricky to decide if he would embrace his powers and become Aion again," was the answer given through the crunching of ice.

"Well, since he rejected them, what are you going to do now?"

"There is yet another who will come to claim them, for time must have a master."

"All of that trama was just for that?"

"Not just for that, my nosey little angel. The second reason is that, although most of the mortals will never remember what happened, those so-called gods with the little "g" will. What they went through should remind them that, despite their enormous powers, they are not omnipotent and they still need me."

"I know, for I spoke with Fenrisúlfr on my way to deliver some souls to Hela. The poor wolf was bound once again by the Asgardians with the chain Gleipnir."

"The time travelers have also returned to their own proper realities, including that meddlesome Metron. However, I did have to tweak Marian and Robin's timeline slightly so she could have the children that I promised her and of course, I made sure that Sue did too."

"The other mortals are back to doing what they do best, which appears to be killing each other. I saw the tank crew I was left with when I was made human in the desert and they were charging with their squadron into Iraq. By the way, why did you do what you did to me? Being mortal was painful!"

"My silly little child, you needed to learn the pain and suffering of those mortals you claim. Compassion has never before been one of your strongest traits, I warned you about that long ago in Jerusalem. Now come on and try a little of this delicious treat before you return to work," the lamb said as she leaned over and offered the ferret a bite.

* * *

**Zootopia 489**

Ricky sat up as he awoke with a start from his peaceful sleep and looked around at the empty hut in surprise. He felt odd, for his head seemed lighter and he tried to raise his long ears and let them flop back down, but they didn't hit his shoulders as they should have. Panicked, he reached up to grasp his right ear and realized it was much shorter and more pointed. Quickly, he tossed off the covering and sat up, his eyes widened when he saw his feet were shorter too and the claws were sharper and not blunt like they were before. He stumbled as he stood and was temporarily off balance when he lunged towards the hut's opening and threw the reed mat covering aside. The sun was bright in the sky above and he shielded his eyes with his paw while he glanced around and saw the stone monolith was still there, along with a familiar-looking group of foxes and coyotes who all stared at him in amusement. It was then he realized he was still naked and he grabbed his tail to cover himself.

"Good morning Waah-i-ald, Nockotia is with her parents," a voice answered his unasked question. He looked over to see an elderly she coyote baking flatbread over a fire. "She was feeling a little ill this morning."

"Why? Is she okay?" Ricky asked with concern.

"Vixens who are having their first litter usually have morning sickness."

"Nockotia is pregnant? How did that happen?"

The bemused look which the old coyote gave the todd should have told him all he needed to know, but he just stared at her in confusion. "I know you gave up your divinity to live with us as a mortal fox, but even a former god should know how a vixen gets pregnant?" she finally laughed. "Especially, since you are the one who made her so!"

"I'm going to be a father?"

It was well past midnight thirteen years later when the fox tod sat up suddenly on his pallet, he could feel that his wife was snuggled against him as she slept but there was a creeping feeling that something was wrong. Around them were their kits, two litter of six young foxes, but he was concerned about their eldest, for Judith was the only child to be born that first summer years ago. Although blind, she was quite capable of getting around and had a great compassionate personality which made the young vixen the darling of the whole village. He was concerned about her, for she had suddenly turned sickly during the last few weeks just as puberty had set on. He panicked as he stood up and walked across the hut to where she should be sleeping and realized that she was gone!

His ears flicked when he heard her talking to someone outside and quickly he pushed aside the reed mat which was covering the door and stepped outside into the pale moonlight. The village was unnaturally quiet and he felt the fur along the nape of his neck begin to rise. Then he saw her standing there holding the hand of a very pale dark-haired human-looking girl in black clothing. "Don't take my child!" he pleaded when he saw it was Death.

Before the angel could speak, Judith turned towards her father. He stepped back in shock when he saw that her eyes were now glowing brightly white. "I am fine papa," she spoke softly and he realized she could now see him. "For even death has no claim over me now."

"Judith!" Waah-i-ald cried out as he desperately reached for her.

"No papa, my name is now Aion for I am reborn and now I am the goddess of time," She replied with a caring smile as she walked over and gave him a hug. He could feel the power coursing through her thin body. "I was born to embrace the power that you had once rejected."

"Time must always have a master or in this case a mistress," Death added.

"Will we ever see you again?" he asked as his daughter gently pushed herself free from his embrace.

"Of course, because now I am time and for me, the past, present, and future are mine to control," she giggled as she took Death's hand, and together they disappeared.

Across all of the many realities, time and space were balanced once again.


End file.
